. The Supreme Court (SC) has issued an interim order not to implement the decision of Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal on September 23 to ban the construction of projects worth more than TAG_OPEN_span_10 TAG_CLOSE_span_11 Rs 1 million from the users’ committee.

The Supreme Court has issued an interim order on November 3 not to implement the directive issued on October 22 as per the decision of the Council of Ministers on September 22.

The government had decided not to implement projects worth more than 10 lakh rupees from the consumer committee and the projects operated by the provincial or local level with financial transfer.

“The Public Procurement Act, 2063 (2063) has adopted the matter of work through the consumer committee as a procurement method and Section 44 provides that the work can be done by the consumer committee as well and as per Rule 17 of the Public Procurement Rules, 2064 made in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 74 of the same Act, the construction work or related service estimated to be up to Rs. 10 million shall be done by the consumer committee consisting only of the residents residing in the same place and the community availing such service. The Supreme Court has said that the issue of not implementing projects worth more than 10 lakh rupees from the consumer committee in a way that curtails the legal provision that can be achieved is against the law and order.

As an interim order was issued by the joint bench of the Supreme Court on November 5, the decision of the government should not be implemented for the time being until the writ petition is settled.