Gandaki Province and Province-5 have been engaged in squandering over Rs 50 million by organizing trivial events in the name of Visit Year in the current fiscal year. The Visit Year campaign — announced in haste — has been limited to publicity campaign sans working on infrastructure development.
Mukesh Pokharel: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari inaugurated the Lumbini Visit Year 2076 on May 18, 2019. The inaugural ceremony appeared to be extremely exorbitant as out of the total Rs 7 million allocated, Rs 4.9 million was exhausted only on lunch, stage management, and management of food and hospitality for the guests.
Source: Secretariat of Lumbini Visit Year.
If the Secretariat of the Lumbini Visit Year is to be believed, it had apportioned the amount (Rs 4.9 million) to the Lumbini Development Trust — entrusted with the responsibility to organize the inauguration ceremony — for the aforementioned management.
Meanwhile, the Secretariat expects a total of Rs 1.5 million would be spent on the closing ceremony of the Lumbini Visit Year. It should be noted that the Province-5 Government had allocated a total of Rs 41.9 million in the current fiscal year to celebrate the Lumbini Visit Year 2076.
The Lumbini Visit Year announced by Province-5 is coming to an end without any major achievements. To be precise, the campaign failed to gain momentum. According to Tuk Prasad Pandey, a staffer at the Visit Lumbini Secretariat stationed at the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, out of Rs 22.79 million 27.90 million allotted in the first three months (March-July) of the fiscal year 2019/20 to organize various programs, a total of Rs 16.2 million have been spent on several headings. An approximate of Rs 1.91 million is likely to be spent in the current fiscal year for other activities.
The Province government drained a total of Rs 1.42 million for announcing the Mayadevi Prasuti Marg and Prasuti Celebration in the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, on May 19, 2019, a cultural rally was organized from Devdaha-based Bhawanipur of Rupandehi and Ramgram of Nawalparasi to Tilaurakot of Kapilvastu which involved a lot of expenses.
Similarly, a total of Rs 498,000 was spent on March 18, 2019, to organize Sujata Kheer Festival in which the organizers had provided pious (kheer) as lunch to the participants in Lumbini.
Likewise, Rs 1.2 million was spent during the Full Moon Celebration Day. Meanwhile, a total of Rs 762,000 was spent for stage preparation, lunch, among other works during various programs in the Buddha-related sites every month. The organizers also spent a huge amount of money to inaugurate temporary-constructed gates during the inaugural ceremony of the Visit Lumbini Year.
A total of Rs 498,000 was spent in the name of branding, logo, jingles, and website development for the Visit Year. Out of the Rs 2 million apportioned for publicity until the end of July, around Rs 1.62 million has been used up.
According to the Visit Lumbini Year Secretariat, they disbursed Rs 10 thousand per each advertisement (color) and Rs 5 thousand each for black and white advertisement on local newspapers published from Rupandehi. Similarly, Rs 5 thousand was allocated per each advertisement on FM radios and Rs 10 thousand per each advertisement on televisions. The Secretariat has plans to allocate Rs 1.5 million for advertisement.
Out of the total Rs 2.25 million allocated to organize street exhibition, Rs 1.19 million has been spent until July. A total of Rs 1 million is likely to be spent in the current year. Street festivals were organized in several major towns of all seven provinces. Despite spending hefty amount of budget, these programs, however, have been ineffective to attract tourists.
Unfortunately, despite the Province -5 government’s efforts to make the Visit Lumbini Year a success, tourism entrepreneurs have expressed dissatisfaction. They do not seem to be satisfied with the outcome of the Visit Year.
President of Siddhartha Hotel Association, Chandra Prakash Shrestha alleged the authorities concerned of spending the budget in inconsequential errands. “The time, undoubtedly, was inappropriate to launch the Visit Lumbini Year campaign. The campaign has been ineffective. The campaign has done nothing but squandered the budget,” he says.
The province government used up the budget in trivial tasks. Around Rs 90 thousand was expended in the pretext of cleaning upgrading and improving the Buddha Circuit. A total of Rs 705,000 has been appropriated for maintenance of the Buddha Circuit this year. Out of this, while Rs 400,000 was spent last year, the authorities have plans to allocate another Rs 600,000 for this year for the same task. Says Shrestha, “Rather than organizing unnecessary events, the Province-5 government should have worked on the infrastructure focusing on Buddha’s birthplace Lumbini to make the Visit Lumbini Year a success.”
According to the Visit Lumbini Year 2076 program and budget booklet, the authorities have spent an exceptionally huge amount of money for inauguration, seminars and other trivial activities. The government has allocated Rs 2 million to organize seminars on Bauddha Philosophy and other Lumbini-related activities in the current fiscal year.
Likewise, while Rs 500,000 has been spent in organizing Yog and Meditation camp, Rs 1.2 million was spent in the name of illumination of Lumbini. Similarly, Rs 1 million was consumed to print Buddha Circuit brochures. Out of the total Rs 1 million allocated for printing and distribution of t-shirts and caps with Visit Year logo, Rs 497,000 was spent for the same. A total of Rs 130,000 was expended on printing Visit Lumbini Year stickers. Likewise, Rs 1.35 million was spent to make national flags.
Similarly, while Rs 600,000 was squandered for the management of the sale counter of local stuff produced in the province, Rs 500,000 was spent in the purchase of dustbins. Similarly, the organizer spent Rs 1 million for illuminating in Belahiya, Rs 500,000 to organize marathon, Rs 300,000 to organize essay writing competition on Buddha Philosophy and Peace, and Rs 1 million to tourist-guide volunteers. Interestingly, Rs 250,000 was spent for lunch/snacks and that, too, in two meetings of the main organizing committee, Rs 200,000 squandered during an executive committee meeting, and Rs 200,000 during the meeting of sub-committee.
Similarly, Rs 450,000 was spent by the Lumbini Visit Year 2076 Secretariat. Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment of Province-5, Leela Giri claimed that the Lumbini Visit Year has been successful to support to publicize Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha.
Gandaki Province on the same track
Gandaki Province has allocated a total of Rs 10 million to organize Gandaki Visit Year 2019. According to Juddha Gurung, coordinator of Gandaki Visit Year 2019/22, a total of Rs 5 million has been squandered to send invitation to different places of Nepal and some neighboring countries through the Province Chief. A team of artistes and entrepreneurs also travelled to all seven provinces to handover the invitation of the Visit Gandaki Year.
While Rs 2 million out of total allocated Rs 10 million has been apportioned for administrative expenditure, Rs 3 million has been allotted to invite Indians, Chinese and Bangladeshis by travelling to those countries. A team is soon visiting to those countries to invite nationals of these countries. The Gandaki Province has decided to celebrate 2019 to 2022 as Visit Gandaki Year.
Province-5 and Gandaki Province, despite being the provinces having numerous tourist spots, lack sufficient infrastructural development. However, these two provinces have announced visit years without ample preparation or arrangements due to which millions have been drained out on trivial programs.
Says tourism expert Rabi Jung Pandey, “The provincial governments should have announced such campaigns only after ensuring or developing required tourism-related infrastructure.” Pandey adds, “Programs are brought and implemented in such a way that they would only squander budget rather than making the program effective and successful.”
Province-5 had allocated a total of Rs 570 million in tourism in the fiscal year 2019/20. The budget has been increased to Rs 750 million in the current fiscal year. However, the budget has been squandered on futile and inefficacious programs such as construction of view towers, museums and temples. The roads connecting major touristic destinations such as Lumbini, Tilaurakot, and Ramgram and other infrastructures are substandard while some are in dilapidated state.
Says Chandra Prakash Shrestha, a tourism entrepreneur of Bhairahawa, “The time and situation was not favorable to attract tourists in Lumbini. The road connecting Bhairahawa to Lumbini is in a dilapidated state. A tourist travelling on this road will not in any way travel through this road again.”
Shrestha suggests authorities concerned to repair the road before organizing promotional programs. Tourists reaching Lumbini during the Visit Year faced numerous problems. Imagine, how one feels when it took one hour to cover a distance of some 22 kilometers, which usually takes 20-25 minutes. And this is the reality.
Tourism expert Ram Chandra Sedhain argues that such frivolous events is not going to support in promoting tourism in the Province. “The authorities should rather emphasize development of infrastructure by identifying major tourism destinations,” he said, adding, “However, the government seems to be least bothered. It is more focused on squandering the budget.”
All roads connecting the historic and religious sites such as Tilaurakot, Sagarhawa, Ramgram and Devdaha related to Siddhartha, Gautam Buddha and Lumbini are mostly in a dilapidated condition. Sedhain emphasizes repair of roads connecting these places to ensure smooth operation of buses. According to him, the Province-5 government should have focused on promoting tourism destinations by identifying these places, which, however, did not happen. “You don’t have to invite domestic tourists to visit Lumbini,” he said adding, “They come here on their own. Therefore, the focus should have been to create an environment to attract more domestic tourists.”
Tourism expert Rabi Jung Pandey suggests Province-5 and Gandaki State to work in tandem with the private sector to promote tourism in the provinces. “The government’s task is to develop infrastructure. The province government does not have the access to bring in foreign tourists. It’s not need frills or gimmicks to attract domestic tourists. Merely broadcasting audio-visuals will work,” he said.
