Waling, 13th Bhadra – The issue of the budget passed by the 16th Municipal Assembly of Waling Municipality has heated up the town. It has been revealed that Mayor Krishna Khand presented a different budget in a press conference, despite the budget already being passed by the Municipal Assembly on Ashar 10. After the budget certified by Mayor Khand was made public by the publication “Himdut,” ethical questions have been raised against him.

Claiming that the budget presented by the Deputy Mayor was a deficit budget, Mayor Khand presented a new budget today in a press conference at the municipality. However, it was found that the newly presented budget hid nearly 20 million rupees more in the operating budget compared to the budget presented by the Deputy Mayor. Additionally, the new budget also deceived the public by inflating the budget in certain headings and reducing the budget allocated for development projects, further raising doubts about the municipality’s budget.

In response to Mayor Khand’s claims, Deputy Mayor Kavita Tiwari released a statement this evening, refuting the Mayor’s claims and asserting that she had presented a citizen-friendly budget based on resource estimates. This statement has cast further doubt on the credibility of Mayor Khand’s actions.

Controversy During the Press Conference

During the press conference organized by Waling Municipality, Shri Krishna Sigdel, President of the Syangja chapter of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), had to leave midway. Mayor Khand had invited the Vice President of FNJ, Bhawani Adhikari, former President Om Prakash Sharma, and Prakash Dotel to take their seats, which led to Sigdel’s departure from the event.

The press conference, chaired by Mayor Khand, saw the municipal spokesperson Padamraj Gurung make the budget public. Sigdel later stated that he left the event out of dissatisfaction with the way the local government head treated the FNJ, a common institution.