INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, July 24
The House of Representatives today unanimously adopted a special resolution condoling the deaths caused by recent floods
and landslides and urged the government to carry out relief, rescue and rehabilitation work effectively.
The special resolution was adopted
after the HoR discussed the plight of flood and landslide affected people for almost six hours.
The Nepali Congress and Rastriya Janata
Party- Nepal, which had been obstructing House proceedings since July 9, ended their obstruction to discuss their motion of urgent public
importance about floods and landslides.
Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara also announced that all HoR members would contribute their one day
salary to the government relief fund.
The NC and RJP-N have been demanding formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the alleged
cases of two extra judicial killings in Sarlahi, but they ended their House obstruction for today to discuss flood and landslide related
issues.
Both ruling and opposition parties& lawmakers who took part in the debate today, urged the government to provide relief and shelter
to flood affected people, seek lasting solution to floods in the Tarai by managing rivers and building embankments, halting haphazard
exploitation of Chure range and forming a national authority to control and mitigate the impacts of disasters.
They also said haphazard use
of excavators in hill areas was increasing the risk of disaster.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba condemned the government for ‘not
distributing relief materials& to flood affected people in the Tarai districts.
Deuba, who recently toured Tarai districts to assess damage
caused by recent floods, said flood displaced people lacked food, clothes and shelter
&The government should have acted fast to provide relief to flood victims but it did nothing in this regard
The government built very weak embankments in the Tarai districts,& he said and added that the government needed to have plans to address
the problem of siltation in the rivers.
He also said that Nepal blamed India for flood and vice-versa, but both countries should stop
engaging in such allegations and counter-allegations
Nepal should hold dialogue with India to find a solution to the problems for good.
NC lawmaker Minendra Rijal, who had moved the motion of
urgent public importance in the House, said the government needed to prepare an integrated plan to address the problems of disaster
victims.
RJP-N lawmaker Rajkishor Yadav, who seconded the motion, said that the government preparedness to deal with floods and landslides
was not enough even when the members of the relevant House panel had warned the government of disaster risks.
NC lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh
said that the ruling class of all parties was treating people of Province 2 as second class people and therefore, they were not doing enough
to find durable solution to floods and disasters.
NCP (NCP) lawmaker Aman Lal Modi said the government was not doing enough to provide
relief to flood victims in Morang district.
Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Prabhu Shah said, &We lose almost 24 billion rupees due to
floods every year but if we invest that much money to manage rivers, we may be able to solve flood-related problems for good.&
Samajwadi
Party Nepal lawmaker Uma Shankar Argariya demanded ex gratia payment of one million rupees for the families who lost their loved ones in the
He also said that the government should provide free treatment to those who were injured during floods.
RJP-N leader Rajendra Mahato said
that people questioned the presence of the government in flood-hit areas as they did not get any relief from the government
He said district committees that addressed problems of disasters, had millions of rupees in their account and yet the victims of disasters
had not received relief from the government.
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