Kathmandu, July 14

Stung by his own party lawmakers over budgetary allocations, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli stepped up efforts to revise ministry-wise budgetary programmes.

The PM consulted 14 ministries on Wednesday and 11 ministries today on how budgetary programmes could be revised as per the government’s policies and programmes. The new budget will be implemented from Tuesday.

According to Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sher Bahadur Tamang, PM Oli told the meeting that some budgetary programmes could be pruned, added and removed as  needed. The PM urged the ministries to revise their plans and programmes for effective implementation of the budget.

Expressing strong reservations over a few programmes of some ministries, the PM said there were some areas of duplication, which needed to be removed after inter-ministerial consultations.

The PM differed with some ministries’ programmes and offered his own ideas. The home ministry wanted to expand the capacity of prisons in various districts to address the problem of overcrowding, but the PM told the ministry to work on reforming people’s behaviour instead of expanding the capacity of prisons, according to a source at the PM’s Secretariat. The home ministry proposed establishing rehabilitation centres in three provinces, but the PM said it would be better to crack down on drug smugglers instead of building rehab centres in the provinces.

Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Protection had proposed an employment summit in the new fiscal, but the PM ordered it cancelled on Wednesday.

The PM’s Secretariat source also said the PM discussed enforcing a new code of conduct for medical doctors to prevent them from resorting to strikes.

The PM also told the ministries that the government should promote big farms across the country and encourage farmers to opt for modern technology.

“After the ministries present their annual plans and programmes, the PM will tell them to add or reduce some programmes” Minister Tamang told The Himalayan Times.

According to him, the ministries also presented their five-year goals. The main objective of the meeting was to ensure effective implementation of the budget in the new fiscal. “The plans and programmes will be adjusted as per the budgetary ceiling fixed for ministries,” he said.

The secretaries of the ministries briefed the PM about time-bound programmes for the new fiscal.