The House of Representatives on Thursday continued deliberations on Appropriation Bill with the lawmakers putting forth their views on the budget allocated to Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Ministry of Finance.

Speaking at zero hour today, the lawmakers drew the attention of government towards the current affairs and development issues. The lawmakers demanded the government control the price skyrocketing rise.

Lawmakers Atahar Kamal Musalman, Amanlal Modi, and Amresh Kumar Singh spoke about development works, availability of daily essentials, price rise of petroleum products, necessary measures to be adopted in Tarai region during rainy season.

Indu Kumari Sharma said the action should be taken against those found guilty of rape, while Uma Regmi stressed on the need to abide by constitution.

Lawmaker Amanlal Modi said there is shortage of daily essential commodities their prices have shot up.  “Let the government intensify market monitoring instead of remaining silent,” he said. Lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh alleged that the rise in prices is the result of ties between government and businessmen.

Former chief whip of Nepal Communist Party Khagraj Adhikari underscored that the government should monitor the market and take action against those involved in creating artificial shortage of commodities.

At today’s meeting, lawmakers demanded the government slash expenditure on various topics of different ministries.

They presented the proposal, saying excessive amount has been allocated under the topic in comparison to programmes.

Taking part in the discussion, Nepali Congress lawmaker Minendra Rijal opined for deducting the expenditure of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. He also stressed the need of developing physical infrastructure to bring 2,000,000 tourists in the country in upcoming fiscal year.

The NC leaders further said the proposal of expenditure reduction was presented, saying deadline of airport construction and budget allocation have no connection.

Similarly, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) lawmaker Prem Suwal proposed to curtail the expenditure of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation; Youth and Sports and Finance Ministries, saying attention was not paid in preservation of cultural heritages enlisted in the World Heritage site.

Likewise, NC’s Pramila Rai and Prakash Rasaili presented the proposal to reduce the expenditure of Youth and Sports Ministry and curtail the expenditure of different topics of Finance Ministry respectively.

Saying attention was not paid in development of rural tourism, Rastriya Janamorcha lawmaker Durga Poudel stressed the need of reducing the budget of Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.