Ministry of Irrigation is preparing to transfer the budget allocated for Bheri Babai Diversion Multi Purpose Project to fund petty projects in election constituencies of home and irrigation ministers in Dhanusha and Dang, respectively, officials privy to the issue say. While Dhanusha-3 is the election constituency of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bimalendra Nidhi, Minister for Irrigation Deepak Giri was elected from Dang-5. Both are the leader of Nepali Congress. Irrigation ministry officials say that the file to transfer Rs 393 million out of Rs 800 million allocated for the national pride project in the current fiscal year has already reached the Irrigation Secretary for approval before forwarding it to the Ministry of Finance for final approval. The irrigation ministry has proposed to allot Rs 193 million of the Rs 393 million to fund medium-scale irrigation projects in the two districts, while the remaining Rs 200 million will be used for repair and maintenance works of different irrigation projects. Budget transfer from national pride projects to petty projects is also against budgeting principle, officials of the finance ministry say. Funds allocated for these petty projects can easily be misused as there is no mechanism to seriously monitor expenses made in such petty projects. Officials, who were forced to prepare file for the transfer, have expressed surprise over the move as such transfers are allowed after mid-March only. Work of Bheri Babai Diversion Multi Purpose Project is going on smoothly as the contractor — China Overseas Engineering Group Co Ltd (COVEC) — is building access road and camp sites. Similarly, it is digging a 150-meter tunnel to fit install tunnel boring machine (TBM). TBM is likely to arrive in the project site within this fiscal year. Project officials fear transfer of budget might affect the project.
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