Kathmandu, Jan 12: Nepali Congress General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma has accused influential leaders of misusing state resources while preparing the federal budget, saying this practice has repeatedly hurt public trust.

Presenting the organizational report on the second day of the party’s second Special General Convention on Tuesday, Sharma said complaints often surface in Parliament that some constituencies receive inflated budgets due to political clout, while others get less because their lawmakers lack influence. He said this pattern fuels public frustration and amounts to playing with the national treasury.

Sharma said the Special General Convention would commit to stopping this practice and move toward fair and balanced development in a disciplined manner.

He also pointed out that many development projects over the past decades were pushed forward on impulse. Projects were judged mainly on technical feasibility, while their financial sustainability received little serious review. This, he warned, has pushed the country toward a debt trap. He said the convention would decide to stop impulsive projects and ensure that major proposals move ahead only after expert assessment of viability and, when needed, thorough parliamentary debate.

Sharma admitted that failure to improve the capacity to spend the capital budget in a timely and effective way reflects a governance failure. He said the convention would commit to making legal and practical arrangements to allow infrastructure works in three shifts, end the rush of Asare development, and balance work sharing among the three tiers of government.

On non-resident Nepalis, Sharma acknowledged past weaknesses, mistakes, and delays in addressing long-standing demands related to citizenship, voting rights, and investment facilitation. He said the party would take responsibility to act in line with the constitution and Supreme Court orders, and play a leading role in easing these issues.

Sharma also admitted governance failures in delaying the Budhigandaki project despite it being ready to move ahead. According to the report, the project would create a reservoir 15 times larger than Fewa Lake, generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity, promote tourism through a Nepali Falls concept, and help address drinking water, irrigation, and drought problems in Chitwan and the Madhes. He said delaying such a project was a clear mistake and called on future governments and Parliament to advance it by linking the state, the diaspora, and the private sector under a GDPP model.

He further said political appointments in the past often ignored professional merit and ethical background, hurting both institutional dignity and delivery capacity.

People’s News Monitoring Service

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