KATHMANDU, July 7: Nepali Congress (NC) parliamentary party Chief Whip Bal Krishna Khand has expressed grave concern, stating that the government did not seriously acknowledge the issues raised by the parliamentarians.
No sooner Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara commenced today's meeting of the House of Representatives, the parliamentarians from NC and Rastriya Janata Party (RJP) had stood from their respective places in a gesture of protest. Speaker Mahara then allocated time for Khand to voice his opinion. Lawmaker Khand said the government was not taking the ruling of the Speaker seriously, and it was not functioning as per the principle of decentralization of power as provisioned in the constitution.
Manju Khand, who went out of contact after her husband’s arrest...
The executives were not taking the concerns raised by the legislative body, he blamed. Stating that the government should work as per the rule of law, Khand commented that Sarlahi incident, where Kumar Poudel was shot dead, was against the law. He viewed, "The government has full authority to take legal action against those doing illegal work. But he who was already taken under control by the government was shot dead mercilessly." He also demanded an answer from the Minister of Home Affairs regarding the 12-year-old Amit Yadav who was drowned in a river where the sand was being excavated at Ishworpur municipality of Sarlahi district. Expressing his displeasure over the atrocity of police over the locals in Sarlahi who appealed for justice, Khand demanded the details of the incident be made public.
Furthermore, he demanded an answer to why the government decided to repeal to check the pesticide in vegetables imported from India. "We heartily welcomed the government decision to ban the import of adulterated vegetables, but the government gave-in. Why the decision was implemented and withdrawn," he questioned, seeking immediate clarification from the minister concerned on the issue.
Pramod Shah expressed his concern over the 'cold response' of the Sarlahi Chief District Officer in regard with the request for the rescue of a child who lost his life after falling into a river in Sarlahi constituency-1 on June 29. As he said, the CDO directed for rescuing the child by bringing a rope and left the site in five minutes. He took time to brief the Upper House session that illegal quarrying of river products in Banke taking place, as he argued, in collusion with the police administration. The child drowned in a pit on the riverbank developed in course of illegal mining. He could not notice it as it was filled with water, he said.
The incident proved the sheer irresponsibility of police administration. Shah accused the police senior officials of not taking the matter seriously. Rather, the police charged baton against the locals who reached the highway, demanding justice to the victim. Shah also demanded the formation of a commission to look after the incident. He also demanded the government to unveil the report submitted by the Commission headed by former Justice Girish Chandra Lal. Speaker Mahara issued a ruling to the government to furnish replies to this in the next meeting.
