HoR session: Lawmakers put forth their views on contemporary issues

KATHMANDU: Lawmakers have drawn attention of the government towards contemporary issues in today’s meeting of the House of Representatives.

On the occasion, lawmaker Arjun Narsingh KC asked the government to increase budget of agriculture and livestock development.
He shared that the government should be serious to make the country self-dependent on food making the agriculture modern and scientific.

KC also asked the government to initiate procurement process in order to provide fertilizer to farmers on time.

“Out of 87 billion received through USAID, most of budget falls on agriculture sector. We should be serious towards it”, he mentioned.

The lawmaker demanded the Agriculture Ministry to brief the House about Rs 766 billion grants distributed by the Ministry in five years, saying whether or not the real farmers got the grants.

Similarly, Ram Hari Khatiwada asked the government to make public the mastermind of gold smuggling as only vehicles and their drivers carrying illegal gold are arrested.

A huge quantity of illegal gold was seized in Rasuwa on Sunday, he added. Khatiwada demanded the government to arrangement of sending women for housemaid only after making laws.

Likewise, Manish Jha drew government’s attention to create environment of increasing people’s trust towards judiciary while Madhav Sapkota demanded to resolve Guthi problems bringing bill as there are 146 types of Guthi on Sindhupalchowk and farmers are in problem due to this.

Maina Karki asked the government to make arrangement of budget in order to promote herbs and organic agro products as these are the identity of Karnali Province.

Lawmakers—Rama Koirala, Ram Shankar Yadav, Mahesh Basnet, Metmani Chaudhary, Menaka Kumari Pokhrel, Rajendra Bajgain, Rupa Sosi Chaudhary, Roshan Karki, Laxmi Tiwari, Lalbir Chaudhary, lekhnath Dahal, among others also drew the government’s attention on contemporary issues.

‘Social security funds should be prioritized’

Meanwhile, speaking in the ‘special hour’ in the HoR meeting today, CPN (UML) Chief Whip Mahesh Kumar Bartuala said that priority should be given to the contribution based social security scheme.

He called for advancing the processes of co-finance to connect informal sector workers to the social security fund on behalf of the state.

“A process based on contributions must be initiated to link the nearly 4 million workers in the informal sector to the fund. For this, there should be provisions for contributions to be collected each month from workers or contributors and the government. This will help workers become self-reliant and self-employed,” the UML Chief Whip suggested.

He urged the government to ensure immediate rescue and relief arrangements for the residents affected by the landslide triggered by the glacial lake burst in Tilgaun of Humla, as well as the necessary coordination for their rehabilitation.

Ashok Kumar Chaudhary of the Rastriya Swatantra Party emphasized that the government must take immediate and effective steps to resolve the country’s economic crisis, provide relief to debtors, prevent arbitrary actions by banks, and create employment within the country.

Similarly, Durga Rai of CPN (Maoist Centre), expressed dissatisfaction, stating that the government’s policies and programmes, and budget allocation are not oriented towards socialism. She said that the government has not been able to work for the indigenous tribes, women, Dalits, and marginalized communities.