The government´s budget for the current fiscal year has allocated a total of Rs 16 billion for the election, including 10 billion for maintaining security and six billion for the election commission.
Giving due priority to security preparations for the poll, MoF has already released Rs 1.02 billion to MoHA. However, MoF has yet to release the additional amount demanded by MoHA as the latter has not yet finalized the security plan for the election.[break]
“Out of the total amount demanded by MoHA, we have already released Rs 1.02 billion so that highly essential preparations would not be affected by any fund crunch. Additional budget funds will be gradually issued once the security plans are finalized by MoHA,” Baikuntha Aryal, joint secretary and chief of Budget Division at MoF, told Republica on Tuesday.
MoF is mulling to arrange around Rs 3 billion from the Peace Fund, which totals over Rs 4 billion, for the election.
During discussions with MoF officials, MoHA has indicated it is for recruiting some 70,000 temporary police personnel for the election in addition to existing security personnel. However, MoF has suggested limiting the number of temporary police to 50,000 if the election is to be conducted on a single day.
The government can mobilize the Nepal police, the Armed Police Force (APF), National Investigation Department (NID) officials and temporary police personnel to maintain security during polls. The Nepal Army can also be deployed during the polls if deemed necessary.
According to officials at MoF, the government has to spend at least Rs 1.5 billion if 50,000 temporary police are recruited for the polls. During the previous CA election, the government mobilized 55,000 temporary police personnel across the country.
“We have to foot a huge bill for food, uniforms and training costs for the temporary recruits; so we want to keep their numbers down as far as possible,” added the source.
Security agencies have suggested recruiting temporary police for two months while MoF is for appointing them for one and a half months.
Officials at MoF said conducting the election in two phases would be cheaper than recruiting temporary security personnel.
“We can save around one billion if we conduct polls in two phases without recruiting any temporary police. However, the government will have to spend around Rs 500 million for transferring security personnel and for their extra allowances,” the official said.
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