The new municipalities are now carrying out their respective development  projects on a meagre budget endorsed by the Village Council at the start of the current fiscal year.

The budget is definitely not enough for them to carry out big developmental projects to maintain the municipal standards.

In December last year, the government had awarded the status of municipalities to these two former VDCs while announcing the creation of 61 new municipalities across the country.

However, these two municipalities are likely to receive the budget allotted for municipalities from the Finance Ministry from next fiscal year onwards.

“We are just going to engage in necessary homework to come up with development plans and programmes for the next fiscal year,” said Hem Raj Bhusal, chief executive officer at the Karyabinayak Municipality.

The new municipalities do not even have a proper office building to operate from. The Karyabinayak Municipality has rented a house belonging to the Avas Nirman Company in Saibu, while the Mahalaxmi Municipality is currently hunting for an office space.

Chief Executive Officer of the Karyabinayak municipality said that his municipality is planning to rent a bigger office building from next fiscal year onwards.

“We will also start the first phase of the construction of our own office building from next year onwards,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City (LSMC) has recently concluded the first phase of the orientation programme for the recently added eight wards.  

LSMC’s chief executive officer, Tara Bahadur Karki, said the orientation

were organised in three wards of Dhapakhel and Harisiddhi, and two wards of Sunakoti to make the consumers group and general public there aware about the procedures to be followed while carrying out an LSMC project.

Beautification funds released

The government has finally released the  funds meant for city beautification for the Saarc summit three months after the regional meet concluded here.  

Due to the government delay to release the funds on time, the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA), a government body that is responsible for the infrastructure development of the city, was struggling to continue or finish Saarc beautification projects it had initiated. 

Bhaikaji Tiwari, Development Commi-ssioner at the KVDA, said they plan to come up with new beautification projects and also finish the ongoing works related to city beautification .

“The release of the funds meant for city beautification will help us pay the contractors who have already competed their assigned tasks,” added Tiwari. The contractors had also halted works to beautify the Capital due to the delay in payment.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the government hesitated to release the allocated funds for city beautification and tasks to compliment the summit requirements on time citing “improper spending and lack of transparency”.