Parliament continues debate on appropriation bill on 7 different ministries
8:36 AM
The Legislature-Parliament is currently holding discussions on the topics related to seven different ministries under the Appropriation Bill-2073. The ministries on which the House is discussing are the Ministries of Finance, Peace and Reconstruction, Home Affairs, Forests and Soil Conservation, Education, Labour and Employment, and Water Supply and Sanitation. The Parliament Secretariat has fixed the agenda for holding discussions on different headings under the Appropriation Bill until July 5. Daily five hours have been allocated for this purpose. Deliberations on the topics related to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Land Reform and Management, the Ministry of Agricultural Development, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Youth and Sports mentioned in the Appropriation Bill concluded on Wednesday. The Parliament will hold discussions on the topics related to the Ministries of Supplies, Energy, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Women, Children and Social Welfare, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Federal Affairs and Local Development and Physical Infrastructure and Urban Development, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the National Planning Commission Secretariat, the Office of the President and the Vice President on July 3, 4 and 5. The Secretariat has set July 6, 7 and 8 as the dates on which the ministers concerned will respond to the questions raised in course of the discussions on the topics related to their ministries. In course of the discussions on various ministries today, lawmakers demanded cutting the expenses of the Department of Labour and Employment, increasing job opportunities for the youths within the country, promoting self-employment, reining in the illegal activities of manpower recruiting agencies, and seeking the reasons as to why the Janak Education Materials Limited is always in loss. Lawmakers also demanded a cut in the budget allocated to the Home Ministry saying it remained silent even as hundreds of bighas of land in the Nepal side of the border were inundated due to the India-constructed dams along the border by flouting the international laws, and that the ministry was looking the other way even when various illegal activities are taking place at the open border. They also called for cutting the budget allocated to the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, citing it failed to act in time in preventing and containing wild fire. The MPs criticised the Finance Ministry for failing to spend the budget in an appropriate way, to take action against the loss-making public corporations, to arrest market price hike. Taking part in the discussions, lawmakers Amrita Thapa, Prem Suwal and Ramhari Khatiwada raised these issues. Before this, the Parliament endorsed the names of the lawmakers on the investigation committee that the Parliament had decided to form in response to the demand made by the main opposition party, the Nepali Congress. The main opposition party had called on the parliament to form a committee to probe into the leakage of budget information prior to its announcement in parliament. The lawmakers nominated on the committee are Aman Lal Modi, Bharat Saha, Bbauram Pokharel, Rajan Bhattarai, Ramhari Khatiwada, Baijnath Chaudhary, Shivaji Yadav and Sita Luintel Gyawali. In the meeting, Speaker Onsari Gharti read out a letter on the authentication of the Education Bill by the President that was received from the Office of the President.
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