Lawmakers Press Government on Post-Flood Recovery and Festival Travel

Federal lawmakers across party lines have intensified pressure on the government to expedite post-disaster recovery, reopen severed transport corridors before Dashain, and uphold institutional accountability to parliament.

In the House of Representatives, Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Ashika Tamang urged authorities to restore disrupted transit routes ahead of Dashain and Tihar to ensure safe travel for citizens, My Republica reported. Speaking on Monday, Tamang pointed out that several days of intense rain triggered landslides and road subsidence along key sections of the Prithvi Highway in Dhading-1. She called on the government to conduct an immediate technical inventory of damage to roads, bridges, and water systems, while providing relief and compensation to families whose lands and homes near riverbanks suffered destruction.

Disaster response also dominated discussions in the National Assembly on Monday, according to The Rising Nepal. Lawmakers highlighted widespread devastation caused by four consecutive days of relentless downpours. CPN (UML) lawmaker Somnath Portel urged the state to prioritize the search, treatment, and resettlement of people displaced by flooding in the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli river corridor. Fellow UML lawmaker Mina Singh Rakhal demanded adequate relief packages, while Nepali Communist Party lawmaker Jayanti Devi Rai called for the rapid restoration of vital national highways.

Lawmakers argued that disaster response requires administrative and conceptual reforms. On Tuesday, RSP lawmaker Jagadish Kharel told parliament that he is still waiting for a response to his formal proposal to rename the Prime Minister Natural Disaster Relief Fund to the Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund, Nagarik News reported. Kharel maintained that catastrophes should be treated as natural or human-induced phenomena rather than divine acts. He also urged parliament's state affairs committee and a planned special committee to upgrade the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority into a fully empowered statutory entity rather than keeping it under joint-secretary leadership.

Beyond flood mitigation, Upper House members urged the government to protect public welfare and constitutional norms, The Rising Nepal reported. NCP lawmaker Bishnu Bahadur Bishwakarma called for intensified market monitoring on the eve of the festival season to curb price gouging and artificial shortages of essentials such as cooking oil, salt, and foodstuffs. Lawmaker Mohammed Khalid of the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal pressed for adequate funding and appointments for constitutional commissions, while Nepali Congress lawmaker Chandra Bahadur KC expressed concern over the detention of former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana, urging strict adherence to the rule of law.

The push reflects persistent tensions over parliamentary oversight. In an interview broadcast on Nagarik Frontline, Nepali Congress leader NP Saud earlier cautioned that the cabinet must remain directly answerable to the legislature, arguing that attempts to bypass parliament or hold it hostage through a numerical majority undermine democratic norms.