Government spent Rs 12 billion for second CA election

The government has spent Rs 12 billion, according to the preliminary estimation.

"The security agencies have spent Rs 6.5 billion, whereas Election Commission (EC) has spent Rs 5.5 billion making it a total of Rs 12 billion, according to the primary estimate," said finance secretary Shanta Raj Subedi.

The government had allocated Rs 16 billion for the second Constitution Assembly (CA) election held on November 19.

The government had allocated Rs 8 billion each to securities agencies and Election Commission in the budget for the current fiscal year 2013-14.

Though the final expenditure will come in a week, the preliminary estimation showed that the securities agencies have spent almost all of their budget but the Election Commission has not been able to spend all the budget.

The former bureaucrat-led government that was formed with an aim to hold CA election has also planned local election within six months of the CA election.

"The government has allocated the budget also for the local election," he added.

The local bodies have been running on ad-hoc basis for the last one-and-a-half decade due to successive governments failure of holding election due to various reasons. Absence of elected local bodies have fuelled corruption in villages and districts, decreased accountability of the public purse and increased misuse of budget pushing development activities back.