The plausibility of addressing development goals and meeting the infrastructure objectives of regional states with a slashed capital expenditure was highlighted during the second public hearing on next year's austere budget proposal last week.

The proposed budget which reduces capital expenditures by 15 billion Br while allocating the same financial support for regional states as the prior year despite a 33pc inflation rate aroused fears from regional states with protracted infrastructure projects.

Three residents from Seqota and Wag Hemra zone in Amhara Regional State traversed 700Km to the capital and addressed "existential concerns" over proposed capital budget allocations to the Standing Committee of Plan, Budget & Finance affairs chaired by Desalegn Wedago and State Minister for Finance Eyob Tekalegn (PhD)

Yilma Mola, a member of the Dana Wereda council, said it has been 24 years since residents in the area asked for the construction of an asphalt road to have better access to the market.

According to Yilma, the area has been significantly impacted by the two-year war and is dealing with an extremely high cost of living and the need for critical infrastructure.

"What will be the fate of our people?" he enquired Parliament.

The Seqota area has been subject to problems of undernourishment which have garnered international attention.

The Seqota Declaration (SD) is a 15-year roadmap envisaged by the Ethiopian government in 2015 to end malnutrition and stunting in children under the age of two by 2030.

It was made following a baseline study conducted with the collaboration of Johns Hopkins University, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and Big Win Philanthropy, which found that 41pc of children between 6-23 months were stunted after observing 2,616 households from Tigray and Amhara regional states.

Representatives indicated that while residents had held back from voicing their angst over the past two years in consideration of the war and supply shortages possibly induced by Covid-19, "they demand to be heard now".

The Seqota-Amdework-Addis Zemen road, which is supposed to extend a little over 220Km was allotted 8.6 million Br for next year, which will barely cover anything, according to the residents.

Mola Zenebe who serves as a local elder and council member in the Seqota Administration with close to 100,000 households, implied that a pending public rally by the citizenry had been quelled over the past week. He indicated that residents have been wary of undernourishment while inflation has crippled them.

"The brunt of inflation is breaking the most rugged amongst our communities," Mola told Fortune.

Members of Parliament (MPs) from the incumbent ruling party questioned the probability of attaining development goals.

Alemu Damtew referred to the Milamile Road, a 69Km interregional road between Amhara and Oromia regional states, which had its budget slashed from 94 million Br to seven million Birr.

"This barely covers the construction work for a single kilometre," he said.

Another MP Astede Mamo from Gonder town, Amhara Regional State also raised concerns over the Tsegede -Dabit road construction, an area with much contention over ownership between the regional states of Amhara and Tigray.

Enquiries on the limitations of the proposed budget in addressing the infrastructure demands of the country were not limited to roads.