KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that the provincial governments were tasked to blacktop the roads connecting the local levels.
The previous government had planned to execute the work of blacktopping such roads through coordination among three tiers of government. But a dispute between the federal and provincial governments over who would allocate the budget had put the plan in limbo.
Responding to lawmakers’ queries at National Assembly (NA) Thursday, Minister Sharma said, “I authorized provincial governments to undertake the task on the third day I assumed office of Finance Ministry.”
“When I looked into the plan of blacktopping roads connecting local levels, I found the work had been stalled due to tussle between the center and provincial governments over the implementing authority.”
Minister Sharma said the budget for the plan (blacktopping the roads linking local levels) was around Rs. 76 to 77 billion and it was received in form of soft loans from donors.
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