June 5: Lawmakers have urged the government to immediately find out the reasons for the steep rise in market prices and stem out the problem.    
Taking part in the discussions on a proposal of urgent public importance related to the hike in the price of petroleum products during a session of the House of Representatives on Friday, the Members of Parliament (MPs) said that inflation has broken the back of the common man and has affected the daily life of the public.    
Lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel said the general people were finding it hard to make ends meet due to the price hike.    
MP Pushpa Bhusal stressed on lessening the imports and increasing export for building a robust economy while Dila Sangraula drew the attention of the government to address the problem of rising market prices.    
Former minister and MP Lal Babu Pandit accused the government of not carrying out market monitoring in an effective manner due to which the consumers are always at the receiving end. Narayan Prasad Khatiwada called on the government to bring effective plans for checking inflation.    
Another MP Sher Bahadur Tamang stressed on the need of taking drastic measures to bring down the price of essential commodities including cooking oil for providing relief to the consumers.    
Samina Hussein demanded finding out the root cause of price hike to bring an effective plan for addressing it.    
CPN (UML) whip Bishal Bhattarai had presented the proposal of urgent public importance drawing the government's attention towards the steep rise in inflation as well as the market prices of essential commodities. He accused the government of failing to take any measures to discourage inflation and increasing the prices of petroleum products such as cooking gas, diesel, petrol and kerosene against provisions of automated price adjustment of fuels.    
As the proposal claimed, the multi-dimensional impact of the rise of prices of petroleum products had not been analysed and the need for discussions with opposition and experts from relevant fields was ignored to assess ways for price adjustment.    
Though the Nepal’s constitution has guaranteed the citizens’ right to live with dignity, the price rise has made the livelihood of people with minimum and meagre income difficult,” the main opposition party said.

"So it is imperative to come up with a clear draft promptly for reduction of the prices of petroleum products and thus to ensure the primary and most significant responsibility of the state which is to make the basic needs of the people addressed," the proposal reads.      
The proposal was seconded by lawmakers Yagya Raj Sunuwar, Ganesh Kumar Pahadi and Rajendra Lingden. -- RSS