Parliamentarians have drawn the government's attention to the need of providing relief in a prompt manner as various places of the country have been affected by flood and landslide.

Taking time from the Speaker in today's meeting of the Legislature-Parliament, the lawmakers said that more than three dozen districts have been hit due to the incessant rain leading to the situation in which thousands of people are likely to be rendered homeless. They called upon the government to make its presence felt.

They demanded the government to evacuate the at-risk settlements in the 14 earthquake worst-affected districts as many settlements in these districts were vulnerable to landslide.

The lawmakers also pointed out that various districts in the Tarai were inundated and called on the government to mobilize its resources and the state mechanism for the rehabilitation of the affected people and providing relief to them.

They criticised the state machinery saying that the problem and the risk related to natural disasters has increased as preparedness for mitigation of disaster risk was not paid attention to although the issue had been raised since long. The MPs suggested the government to make policy-level and physical preparedness.

The MPs demanded that the government work at a war footing arranging for the resettlement and rehabilitation of the people of the earthquake-affected districts as they are at the most risk, stressing on the need of putting in place a mechanism to deal with natural disaster and carrying out rescue and rehabilitation.

They also urged the parliament to issue a fiat to the government for relocating the landslide victims in the earthquake-affected districts to safer location. "The earthquake-affected people have not got the relief 14 months since the disaster and the government has been very negligent regarding the safety of the earthquake survivors," they complained.

The lawmakers expressing the above views include Ram Krishna Yadav, Hit Raj Pandey, Ram Kumar Bhattarai, Aindra Sundar Nembang, Dilman Pakhrin, Bhaear Bahadur Khadka, among others.

National and local issues raised in Zero Hour

Meanwhile, speaking in the Zero Hour of the Legislature-Parliament today, the MPs drew the government's attention to address national and local level problems.

They said the Karnali Zone, especially Humla district, was reeling under food crisis due to the long drought and called on the government to supply food grain to the region. They also drew the government's attention to many districts being hit by flood and landslide and the urgent need of rescue and relief in these places as well as attending to the immediate problems of the earthquake affected people in the rainy season.

The MPs raising these issues during Zero Hour included Krishna Prasad Poudel, Ganesh Singh Thagunna, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, Tulasha Rana, among others.

Madhesi and Adibasi party MPs boycott meeting

Earlier to this, addressing the meeting, lawmaker from the Sanghiya Sadbhavana Party Dimple Kumari Jha expressed the dissatisfaction, saying the government has not given attention to addressing the demands of the Madhes-centric parties which are in agitation since long protesting some provisions of the new constitution.

Soon after she finished her statement, lawmakers from the Madhes-centric and the Adibasi Janajati (indigenous nationalities) parties boycotted the Parliament meeting. RSS