Lalitpur, March 25:

Eight months of the current fiscal have already passed, but the town council meeting of the Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City has not convened yet to approve the planning and budget of the sub-metropolis.

“We have many plans and programmes to implement in the city. However, we have been unable to implement them because of the delay in approval of the budget,” said Chandra Shova Shakya, an architect at the LSMC. She said the renovation of historical places, lakes, stone spouts and temples could not be carried out due to the lack of budget. “Every year, we used to spend Rs 11 million on heritage conservation. But this year, we are still waiting the town council meeting to convene,” she said.

Shakya added that it would be impossible to accomplish projects planned for this fiscal year on time.

Surya Maya Tamrakar, financial officer at the LSMC, said it was the first time that the meeting could not convene for such a long time. “The absence of elected representatives, opinion collection drive of the Constituent Assembly and change of chief executive officer of LSMC are some of the reasons behind the delay,” she added.

The sub-metropolis had proposed an annual budget of Rs 340 million for 2007-08.

LSMC’s CEO Babu Ram Gautam said dates for the meeting had not been fixed yet.

“Preparations are on to convene the meeting at the earliest,” Gautam added.