The Supreme Court has sought a written clarification from the government over the resumption of the Parliamentary Infrastructure Development Programme.

A single bench of Justice Hari Phuyal directed the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to furnish in writing why shouldn't the court issue an order as demanded by the petitioners. Advocate Sagar Baral and two law students on Wednesday had moved the court, demanding an interim order to stop and scrap the controversial scheme.

"The bench has issued a show cause notice against the defendants," said the court order.

The court ordered both the parties—the plaintiffs and the defendant—to visit the court on August 1 for discussion to decide whether or not to issue an interim order as demanded in the petition.

Presenting the national budget for the current fiscal year on May 29, Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had said that he had allocated Rs50 million for the Parliamentary Infrastructure Development Programme to help address the local development needs through directed-elected lawmakers. The money is spent in the electoral constituencies of such House of Representatives members.

A total of Rs8.25 billion has been allocated for the programme, which is popularly known as the pork barrel fund.

The federal government halted resources for projects under the programme in July 2020, deciding to use the remaining funds for Covid-19 response. But the KP Sharma Oli-led government in 2021 released the budget for the programme. After widespread criticism, the then finance minister Yubaraj Khatiwada in the budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 slashed the allocations for the programme to Rs40 million from the earlier Rs 60 million, per constituency. The federal government had allocated Rs6.6 billion for the programme in the fiscal year 2020-2021, down from Rs9.90 billion in 2019-2020. The programme was discontinued by the federal government in the fiscal year 2021-2022, but the provinces continued it.

The allocation of the budget to be spent at the discretion of lawmakers has been mired in controversies as some of the lawmakers are believed to have been misusing the funds, promoting policy corruption. Many have been saying that it promotes the misuse of taxpayers’ money because it is run mainly by local consumer committees, usually at the behest of party cadres. Even the annual reports of the auditor general have mentioned that the funds have not been used properly.

Although some of the lawmakers, during the budget deliberations, had demanded discontinuation of the fund, most of them stood for it. As a result, it went through Parliament.