Kathmandu, June 29: The meeting of the House of Representatives the other day began discussions on the headings of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works under the appropriation bill-2057 B.S.

At the meeting, Pashupati Shumsher J. B. Rana of the Rastiya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Lilamani Pokharel of the Samyukta Janamorcha and Navaraj Subedi of the Rastriya Janamorcha presented separate proposals on curtailing the budget allocation of the Ministry of Water Resources by Rs 100 and Hridayesh Tripathi of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP) and Ishwar Pokharel of the CPN-UML tabled separate proposals on curtailing the budget allocation of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works by Rs 100.

Presenting his cut resolution, Mr Rana of the RPP said that after the completion of the Kaligandaki Hydel Project, almost 1000 mw of power would be generated in an hour which would be meet the demand for the next three years and looking at the power sector, the situation of load shedding would recur after the year 2006.

Asking how the demand of power would be met at that time, he said that agriculture perspective plan would not succeed if irrigation projects were not introduced and alleged that eight employees of Nepal Electricity Authority were dismissed without any valid reason.

Presenting the cut proposal, Lilamani Pokharel of the Samyukta Janamorcha said that unless water resources was harnessed, development of the country was not possible but as a huge chunk of the money allocated in this sector was dependent on foreign loan, the government was not sensitive in this matter.

Likewise, Navaraj Subedi of the Rastriya Janamorcha presented his cut proposal and said that Nepal was the second richest country in water resources but only 15 per cent of the population was benefiting from power and 30 per cent of the land was irrigated whereas embankment along the rivers had not been constructed and India had constructed dams in contravention to the international law along the border.

Hridayesh Tripathi of the NSP, presenting his cut proposal, said that the amount of money earmarked for the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works and Transport was insufficient and not balanced and the country rich in water resources was becoming poor in the absence of appropriate policy and programme.

Ishwar Pokharel of the CPN-UML, presenting his cut proposal, said that the problems of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works was becoming complicated day by day, there was no allocation for Karnali Highway, and attention had not been paid to feeder roads.

Ram Chandra Tiwari, N. P. Saud and Ram Janam Chaudhary of Nepali Congress said matters relating to the privatization of the Kathmandu Drinking Water Project and the development of sewers are laudable, the polices concerning irrigation, electrification, flood control, road construction, etc are not clear as a result of which money is wasted, a master plan should be devised for river control and funds allocated for the construction of roads and bridges are not enough.

CPN-UML’s Raghuji Pant and Bir Bahadur Lama noted that like east-west highway, the north-south highway should be constructed to expedite economic development of the country, a clear-cut policy should be devised in consultation with India in terms of exploiting water resources, smaller hydro power projects should be prioritized, Nepali technicians involved in projects as far as possible, actions taken against those who are involved in commission mongering and the misuse of vehicles by the Nepal Electricity Authority should be stopped without delay.

RPP’s Brijesh Kumar Gupta and Netralal Shrestha spoke of the need for the government to formulate a policy for selling electricity to China and India, pluck electricity leakages and stop commission-mongering, provide irrigation and drinking water facilities to the villages, complete road and irrigation projects in Salyan district on time and launch the Rampur Hydropower Project.

Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav of the Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) protested against the allocation of little budget for the hulaki or postal roads in Terai and programmes should be effectively carried for construction of roads and bridges.

Govinda Bikram Shaha of RPP complained that there is no coordination between the budget speech and the red book, the Nalgai, Dahakhola and Kudu irrigation projects should be launched, Gabion wires provided for flood control and the Chhinchu-Jajarkot road built as early as possible.

Harkaman Tamang and Mahendra Prasad Yadav of the CPN-UML observed that plans presented by the government are not balanced, planners at national planning commission have discriminated in terms of terai development, attention has not been given to hulaki or postal roads linking 22 districts and the budget allocated for the Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway is very low.

NC’s Ramesh Lekhak and Bharat Kumar Shaha stressed that immense water resources of the country should be exploited for our development, the DPR of Mahakali prepared as early as possible, the government should give attention to the construction of dam by India on Purnagiri is not in favour of our interests, priority given to small irrigation projects and the eigth electricity project launched on time, complaining that a huge amount is being spent on consultation services. Tukraj Sigdel of the CPN-UML remarked that the vast water resources of the country is going to waste, success is hard to come by because of the focus laid on bigger projects, and attention should be given to river control, irrigation for agriculture development and transportation.

Shiva Kumar Basnet and Narayan Sharma Paudel of the Nepali Congress said despite being one of the richest countries in water resources, we are not yet able to tap it, corruption and commission-mongering have made the projects more expensive, the budget earmarked for the Narayani River control is not enough and attention given to flood control in four VDCs of Madi.