SC stays implementation of parliamentary development fund

KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to halt the implementation of the Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Program, commonly known as the Parliamentary Development Fund.

In the budget for the fiscal year 2023/24, the government has allocated Rs 50 million to each electoral constituency. The Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led coalition government revived the program, which had been shelved for the past two fiscal years due to strong criticism from different sections of the society, for the current fiscal year.

The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, consisting of Chief Justice Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha and Justices Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha, and Prakashman Singh Raut, issued the interim order.

“It appears that the primary role of the federal and state legislatures will be of a legislative nature. Federal parliamentarians or state assembly members do not seem to have been given the responsibility to perform executive functions. In this situation, a conflict of interest may arise when the parliamentarian allocates funds in their constituency for projects that are not recommended by the National Planning Commission, the Provincial Planning Commission, or the relevant ministry,” the bench stated in its interim order.