Kathmandu, June 25: The meeting of the House of Representatives today began discussions on appropriation heads pertaining to the Ministry of Home.
Buddhiman Tamang of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Lila Mani Pokharel of the Samyukta Janamorcha, Chitra Bahadur KC of the Rastriya Janamorcha and K. P. Sharma Oli of the CPN-UML tabled separate resolutions seeking reduction in the budget of the Ministry of Home by Rs 100.
Mr Tamang of the RPP said that the police administration should be made impartial and transparent; police be assigned the responsibility of maintaining law and order only; the transfer and promotion of police should be free and fair and attention given to training and providing facilities.
Mr Pokharel of the Samyukta Janamorcha said that the government has not been able to identify the root cause of the breach of law and order but has been only claiming that the situation was improving and the perceptions on holding talks with the Maoists were different.
Mr KC of the Rastriya Janamorcha said that the Home Ministry was not able to ckeck corruption and delay in the offices under it; local administrators were power-oriented; human rights of the labourers were not ensured and the people were panicking because of Maoists’ terror.
Presenting the resolution for reduction of the expenditures, deputy leader of the main opposition party K. P. Sharma Oli alleged that the Home Ministry was run in impractical manner and not under any policy; though the Nepali Congress was committed to ensuring law and order, preventing corruption and providing good governance, it had failed in all these three fronts.
He said that the law and order situation was aggravating day by day; innocent civilians were being killed and police personnel were not leaving their offices and going out in the open.
Shiva Kumar Basnet of the Nepali Congress said that the main challenge of the day was maintenance of law and order; police posts should not be removed from the villages; the home administration should be clean and there should not be partiality in deployment of police force.
Yagya Jit Saha of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party said that though big sum has been earmarked under the Home Ministry, budget for the Birendra Police Hospital was inadequate and the hospital could not be made well-equipped.
Ishwar Pokharel of the CPN-UML said that the Home Ministry holding the responsibility of maintaining law and order throughout the country was proving to be ineffective and the example of this was the police personnel avoiding to go to the places they have been sent and shunning their duties.
Netra Lal Shrestha of the RPP alleged that the government was unable to perform an effective role in the context of the incidents of killings and abduction taking place in the country; administration was inaccessible to the government and there was rift among the leaders of the ruling parties on holding talks with the Maoists.
Pari Thapa of the Rastriya Janamorcha claimed that immediately after taking over, the Prime Minister had said that priority would be given to law and order situation and prevention of corruption but there was no improvement in these fields.
Narayan Prasad Saud of the Nepali Congress said that the Home Ministry entrusted with the basic responsibility of maintaining law and order has a distinct role to perform; the law and order situation was challenging; and people were not able to sleep soundly due to Maoists’ terror.
Brijesh Kumar Gupta of the RPP called on the government to be sensitive on massive politicisation of the National Investigation Department and suggested that those who could not receive voters identity card should be provided with it.
Ram Janam Chaudhari of the Nepali Congress said that the budget allocated for the Ministry of Home was inadequate; the transfer and promotion of police should be done on certain criteria and the special police department should not be confined to the capital only.
Govinda Bikram Shaha of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party said that the law and order situation in the country was alarming; and the government should introduce a clear National perspective to resolve the Maoists’ so-called people’s war.
Ramesh Lekhak of the Nepali Congress called on all the party to rise above politics to resolve the Maoists issue which was unfortunate for the country, multi-party democracy and the present constitution.
Prakash Jwala of the CPN-UML said that as the law and order situation of the country was alarming and the people of the Maoists affected area were suffering from the police and the Maoists’ both, the government should pay serious attention in this regard.
Ramchandra Tiwari of the Nepali Congress said that the society itself should be alert to combat girl trafficking and the political parties should not give protection to persons involved in any criminal activities.
Dr. Banshidhar Mishra of the CPN-UML said that the government was not serious about resolving the Maoists’ problem and the government had not extended any cooperation to the judicial commission constituted to look into the incidents of Rauthat.
Bharat Kumar Shaha of the Nepali Congress said the government should guarantee law and order at any cost; police administration should be bifurcated into administrative and riot division; and the National Investigation Department should be well-equipped for its effectiveness.
Nara Bahadur Hamal of the CPN-UML said that the government had proved to be ineffective in resolving the Maoists problem; package programme could not be introduced to resolve the unemployment problem and relief assistance have not provided in time to the victims of the natural disasters.
Narayan Sharma Paudel of the Nepali Congress demanded re-establishment of the police posts where it had been removed from and permanent status for the police post at Gunjanagar of Chitwan district.
Ratna Prasad Sharma Neupane of the CPN-UML said that as theNational Investigation Department had no function, it should be disbanded.