Kathmandu. Youth and Sports Minister Maheshwor Jung Gahatraj argued that it was imperative to allocate budget understanding the sentiments of demography and its jurisdictions.

At the annual review meeting (fiscal year 2020/21) of the Ministry of Youth and Sports today, Minister Gahatraj said that the Ministry represented the biggest portion of the country’s demography therefore, he asserted, that budget should be allocated accordingly.

Government has been allocating 0.16 per cent of the total annual budget to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, according to him. Minister Gahatraj said, “Nobody should back off or shrug off our duties in the pretext of COVID-19. We should work in such a manner that each youth should build a sense of belongingness with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We should facilitate the youth in a way that they are further motivated to move ahead.”

The Minister spoke of the need to adopt approaches such as integration and decentralization for some national pride projects related to youth and sports. He also instructed the concerned authorities to put in places policies and laws to clear the arrears in the government agencies.

The Ministry recorded over 4 billion arrears in the last fiscal year out of which only over Rs 220 million (6.10 per cent) was cleared. Similarly, National Planning Commission member Umashanker Prasad echoed with Minister Gahatraj and urged to pay special attention to clearance of arrears.

He also pointed out the need to stave off the tendencies to perform or deliver beyond targets and goals. Likewise, secretary at the Ministry of Youth and Population Dr Damodar Regmi pledged to emphasize purity, discipline and effectiveness in the subordinate agencies. “National Sports Council type of agencies should be accountable to the Ministry. The Ministry shared that financial handover was done to 140 local levels to build sports ground in their locality.

Likewise, National Sports Council’s vice-chair Shiva Prasad Koirala opined that trend and tendencies to allocate and approve budget for programmes and plans based on the political faith should be bucked. Representatives from the Ministry of Finance, National Planning Commission recommended the Ministry to take into account formulation of programme within the limitation of the budget, effective monitoring of the projects and appropriate usage of the public expenditure among others. RSS