GANDAKI: The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Water Supply of Gandaki Province has been suggested to speed up implementation of its annual policies and programs.

In a meeting of Social Development and Agriculture Committee of Gandaki Provincial Assembly, the committee members including its chair pointed out to the poor implementation of the budget estimates even eight months after it was passed by the Assembly.

“There is delay in the implementation of plans that have a guaranteed budget, the provincial government and the relevant ministries should be serious about this,” said Bed Bahadur Gurung, a member of the committee.

Likewise, another member of the committee Dilmaya Paubi said that the monitoring from the local level was not effective due to the large number of fragmented plans.

Furthermore, selection of plans should be need-oriented and scientific. Chair of the committee, Fanindra Devkota, said that the trend of starting to implement the plan towards the end of the financial year should be stopped.

The ministry should share its work achievements in every quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, responding to the questions and queries raised in the meeting, Secretary of the Ministry, Ganesh Raj Wosti, said that the problem has arisen as policies and programs are decided without ensuring resources.

There are 2,468 schemes under the ministry including 2,000 in the province and around 500 from the federal government.

Of them, the detailed project report (DPR) of 1200 schemes has been prepared. He said that some schemes could not be carried forward due to lack of budget.

Likewise, Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Water Supply Saraswati Aryal Tiwari said that the schemes with than Rs 3 million budget from the federal government will not be implemented.

Tiwari said that the provincial government has also removed petty projects and that it will be further improved from the coming year.

The tendency of selecting plans randomly without estimating and ensuring the budget will also be discouraged.