POKHARA: Newly-appointed Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment of Gandaki Province Resham Bahadur Jugjali has said that the new government in the province was not in a comfortable zone to plan for new projects and programs due to the fiscal liability created by the past governments.

He mentioned that the Gandaki province government downsized the number of ministries from 12 to seven to become economic and justify the relevance of province.

Minister Jugjali stated that the province government has difficulties to prepare new projects and programmes until those financial liabilities were cleared.

Of the total Rs 30 billion capital budget in the province, the past governments have created Rs 13.5 billion fiscal liability from the projects initiated by them, Minister Jugjali stated.

He also shared that the province government was working to complete those initiated programs and the contract awarded projects in time.

Minister Jugjali assured to allocate more budget for the tourism related activities as tourism was the key basis for the prosperity of Gandaki province.