Kathmandu, July 12: MPs of the National Assembly seeking time from its Chairman Dr. Mohammad Mohasin at its meeting today asked the government to devote attention towards the issues raised at the House, manage the solid waste piling up in the capital and initiate action against those involved in deforestation.

At the outset, Arvinda Thakur of Nepali Congress said the government should pay heed to the issues raised by MPs to enhance its dignity, finalise the bills under consideration at the house and be serious over problems such as Bhutanese refugee and border trespassing.

Bir Bahadur Singh of CPN-UML demanded prevention of log smuggling in Dang district and action against culprits involved in smuggling including Sher Bahadur Khadka.

Lal Bahadur Biswakarma of the same party demanded a probe into an incident of manhandling of Rajendra Mahato by a security gaurd without any reason.

Another MP of the CPN-UML Ramchandra Bhattarai said the Prime Minister should do adequate home work prior to his visit to India and consult with the opposition parties.

He further said the government should not budge from its stand on the review of 1950 treaty, border regulation, the Bhutanese refugee problem and the Mahakali Treaty.

Dr. Ram Man Shrestha of CPN-UML spoke of the vandalism that took place yesterday during garbage disposal and asked why the local bodies do not think about the disposal of garbage.

Bijul Kumar Bishwakarma of Nepali Congress said the government should consider the lot of the employees working as assistant health workers since the last 22 years who have not yet been promoted.

He asked why the government and the municipal corporation were not doing anything about resolving the problem of garbage.

Ganga Datta Joshi of Nepali Congress said houses were swept away and land inundated at Odhara VDC ward No 5, 8 and 9, Kanchanpur and asked the government to avert further damage.

Prakash Man Singh of Nepali Congress warned of an outbreak of disease and expressed sadness over the lackadaisical response on the part of government in disposing the solid waste heaped at the squares and alleys in Kathmandu.

He said nobody should dare to politicise the issue of garbage dumping and an all party meeting should be convened to bring about an amicable solution.

Gaura Koirala of CPN-UML said that police have held MP Bidhya Devi Bhandari in custody following a dispute between police and local people over the dumping of garbage and demanded that the Home Minister furnish a reply at the House over this matter.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly at its meeting today continued clausewise discussions on the Appropriation Bill-2057 B.S.

A total of 10 MPs took part in the discussion.

The ruling party MPs who took part in the discussions said the budget has given priority to poverty alleviation, increased the salaries of employees to boost their morale, stressed the implementation of programmes keeping in mind the real problems of the nation and the people and provided for voter identity cards to make elections free, fair and impartial.

They also demanded that how the revenue mobilization targets can be met should be made clear, attention given to control smuggling, sources of revenue collection improved, employees made more accountable and our rights should be preserved while receiving foreign grants.

Similarly, the opposition MPs observed that the budget has no programmes for agriculture and rural development, there is no specific programmes for irrigation development, subsidies given on chemical fertilizers have been stopped and the size of the budget shows that it is not based on reality.

Stating that prices of goods are likely to shoot up with the increase in employees salaries, the government should give attention to this, they noted that development budget should be more than the budget for general expenditure and efforts made for balanced development of the country.

Those taking part in the discussions were ruling party MPs Yog Prasad Upadhyaya, Shukraraj Sharma, Bijul Kumar Biswokarma, Ratna Bahadur Biswokarma, Arvind Kumar Thakur, Mahendra Kumar Mishra and Jeevan Prem Shrestha and opposition MPs Kashinath Adhikari, Bir Bahadur Singh and Yuva Raj Gyawali.

The National Assembly meets again at 11 a.m. tomorrow.