NA lawmakers urge about parliamentary panel's reports

Lawmakers have called on the government to be accountable to the parliament and implement the directives given by the parliamentary committees.

Taking part in a discussion on the evaluation and follow-up report on the implementation of the National Concern and Coordination Committee's annual reports for the fiscal year 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 in the meeting of the National Assembly (NA) today, they urged the government to be serious on implementing the reports brought by the parliamentary committees after intensive deliberation.

The upper house lawmakers called on the parliament also to pay attention to the government's negligence towards implementing the parliamentary committee's reports taking them only as ritualistic even though the ministers and secretaries of different ministries are invited to the committees' meetings for clarifications.

Lawmakers Sonam Gyaljen Sherpa criticized the government for not being serious about the directives and suggestions given by the committee to the government.

Gopi Bahadur Sarki Achhami stressed fully implementing the directives related to the implementation of federalism and finalizing the issue of fiscal federalism.

Jayanti Devi Rai said the national pride projects were not giving the due returns commensurate with the investments made in them.

Anita Devkota said many national pride projects were in limbo and there was a lack of coordination at different structural levels. She complained that projects which were said to be completed in five years have not been completed even in 15 years.

Khimlal Devkota alleged that the federal government has a mentality of centralization when it comes to making various legislations facilitating the provincial governments.

Tulasa Kumari Dahal pointed out to the lack of inter-ministry coordination in implementing the national pride projects. She wanted to know about the government's preparation in the face of increasing COVID-19 cases.

Kamala Panta complained about the overly delay in the construction of the Budhigandaki Project despite an adequate budget.

Devendra Dahal said the government has not even implemented 30 percent of the directives of the parliamentary committees.

Ganga Kumari Belbase drew the attention of the government over the tardy progress in the construction of the Nijgadh Expressway.

Madan Kumari Shah (Garima) called the attention of the government to vigorously resolve the problems encountered in the construction of the national pride projects and also to pay attention to the quality of work.

Bimala Rai Paudyal stressed the need for improvement in the process and procedures of project construction. She said the 'track record' of the construction companies should be thoroughly evaluated before awarding them the contract for the construction of projects.

Jitendra Narayan Dev said the government is not taking the committee's directives seriously while Shekhar Kumar Singh urged the government to the implementation of the directives of all four committees of the National Assembly as they are to assist the government. He also called the attention of the government over the renting out of the land belonging to the Pashupati Development Trust.

Before this, the meeting unanimously approved a proposal seeking consideration over the evaluation and follow-up reports. Committee president Dil Kumari Rawal Thapa presented the proposal in this connection.

---