Kathmandu, July 12: Lawmakers speaking in the meeting of the National Assembly, the upper house of the Federal Parliament, today drew the attention of the government and political parties to various problems facing the nation.    

CPN (UML) lawmaker Bhairab Sundar Shrestha said the government should focus its attention to widen the coverage of vaccination against COVID-19, saying the pandemic has claimed the lives of 9,300 people in the country so far. He also called on the government to provide relief to the flood and landslide-affected families and their rehabilitation.    

Referring to the latest political developments after the Supreme Court's verdict on reinstatement of the House of Representatives and the mandamus order to appoint NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister in two days, Shrestha accused the main opposition party and other opposition parties of 'encircling' PM KP Oli to unseat him as they have become intolerant to the government's good works in favour of the country and the people.    

Indu Kadariya of the same party said the people well understand the circumstances in which the House of Representatives had to be dissolved. She opined that the lower house of the Federal Parliament had to be dissolved due to the 'politicking' by some individual leaders to fulfil their personal greed for power.

She defended the present government saying the post-earthquake reconstruction works, development works and works related to the country's prosperity were expedited by it. Kadariya urged the government to give first priority to the Sudurpaschim province in the vaccination programme against COVID-19.    

Nepali Congress' Jitendra Narayan Dev criticized the government for what he said 'issuing the Articles of Association of the Nepal Airlines Corporation without thinking' when the national flag-carrier in its 63 years of life has provided services to the people of the remote areas relatively at less cost compared to the private sector airlines companies. He said the government's this decision is against the NAC's interests.    

Shekhar Kumar Singh of Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal urged the government to bring relief package targeted to the farmers who are much affected by floods and inundation. He also called attention to the need of protecting the many bridges on the East-West Highway, the lifeline of the country, as they are at risk due to flooding.    

Ram Narayan Bidari accused the Prime Minister of inviting political instability in the country because of the 'unwise' political decisions his government has made in the past. He suggested the government work together with other parties who were together in the past in the movement waged for democracy by forging consensus and collaboration.    

Give priority to workers and people in remote areas in vaccination    

CPN (UML) lawmaker Deepa Gurung called on the government to provide anti-COVID vaccines to all the citizens at the earliest. She also pointed out the need for coordinated efforts of the three tiers of the government in the rescue and relief initiatives as well as opening the traffic on roads damaged due to the flood and landslide triggered by the recent incessant rains.    

Sarada Devi Bhatta of the same party called for providing appropriate relief to the farmers whose crops have been damaged due to the inundation in most parts of the Tarai region.    

She called on the government to take action against the murderers of a three-year-old boy in the Kailali district.    

Kabita Bogati, also of the UML, praised the government for its initiatives for bringing anti-COVID-19 vaccines.    

Bimala Ghimire of the same party demanded that the government should provide anti-COVID vaccines to the workers of the national pride projects with priority.    

Nanda Chapain of the same party reiterated that the people in the remote areas should be prioritized while administering anti-COVID-19 vaccines.    

Narapati Lohar, also from the UML party, demanded immediately providing relief ad compensation to the flood-affected people.    

Prakash Pantha of Nepali Congress said the people's representatives have not been able to play the role as per the people's expectations and stressed the need of making the works of the National Assembly more effective.    

Jeevan Budha of the CPN (Maoist Centre) said the National Assembly should be made the place for effective law-making and opinion formation.    

Mahesh Kumar Mahara of the same party expressed concern saying incidences of murder and rape were increasing in the country in recent days due to the 'weak' maintenance of law and order.