The government has expressed serious objection to the directive of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to stop the release of the budget for the political parties and its activists for their programmes.

A Cabinet meeting held Friday morning concluded that the directive of the anti-graft agency to the government to stop its plan to release the budget of some Rs. 1 billion to various political parties in the name of "People's Participation Programmes" was "beyond its (CIAA;s) jurisdiction as well as against the law" and expressed serious reservation against the decision.

Issuing the directive on Thursday, CIAA had directed the line ministries not to distribute the budget that was not approved by National Planning Commission (NPC) and that are not in the fiscal budget plan.

Similarly, the Cabinet decided to accept Rs 4.64 billion assistance provided by the Asian Development Bank for Integrated Urban Development Programme and constituted a National Directive committee for the implementation of President's Chure Conservation Programme. nepalnews.com