HoR meeting: Parliamentarians demand immediate payment to dairy farmers

KATHMANDU: Parliamentarians have demanded immediate payment to dairy farmers in today’s House of Representatives (HoR) meeting.

CPN (UML)’s Chief Whip Mahesh Kumar Bartaula pressed for making payment to those protesting farmers and said that the issue should be addressed immediately through talks.

Speaking in the ‘urgent hour’ of the HoR meeting, Chief Whip Bartaula voiced that it had been long since dairy farmers had been staging sit-in protest in Kathmandu and expressed his sadness over the arrest of 45 dairy farmers.

“The dairy farmers’ demand is justified. Over 600,000 dairy farmers are to get their overdue payment worth Rs over 6 billion. Farmers have obtained loan from the banks and they is not any situation to pay the loan,” appraised Bartaula.

Drawing the attention of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister towards the dairy farmers’ problem and demanded immediate settlement of their outstanding dues.

Similarly, Nepali Congress’s Nagina Yadav said that the agriculture is the main basis for farmers’ livelihood and thus the genuine demands of the farmers be addressed by the government at the earliest.

CPN (Unified Socialist) Metmani Chaudhary viewed that the crushers and mining industries registered in compliance with the law should be renewed. He shared that over Rs 6 billion was being collected in revenue from crusher industries.

Independent parliamentarian Dr Amresh Kumar Singh expressed his sadness over the baton charge on the Kawadi (scrap) dealers and demanded free treatment of those injured in the protest staffed by them.

Aam Janata Party’s Chairperson Prabhu Shah also drew attention of the government towards baton charging on the scrap dealers who had staged protest peacefully.

CPN (UML)’s Eknath Dhakal said that the suspension bridge connecting Bhimsen Thapa rural municipality of Gorkha district with Tripurasundari in Dhading district was awaiting maintenance and thus demanded that the bridge be repaired at the earliest.

CPN (UML)’s Manbir Rai mentioned that tourists had been facing difficulties due to disruption of air services in Tenzing Hillary Airport in Lukla for so long. Along with the airport, roads in Lukla area were disrupted causing problems to the people taken ill, he said.