Kathmandu, Oct 8: House of Representatives (HoR) member Ashok Kumar Chaudhary has urged the government to promote sports citing that it has not been yet the government priority. The lawmaker who himself is associated with the ‘tug of war’ believes that sports is a valuable tool to promote the nation’s identity on the international stage.

Talking to RSS, the lower house member complained that the government has not given due attention to sports, urging it to promptly ensure the disbursement of cash prizes it has announced earlier for players. Chaudhary who represented the country in the 14th Asian Tug of War Championship-2019 greatly realised the lack of the government priority for the management, production and motivation of players. He insisted on the need for providing proper remunerations to sports people.

Chaudhary, a permanent resident of Pachrukhi in Itahari Sub-Metropolis-5, began his political journey as an independent candidate in the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013 from Sunsari-2. A year later, he joined the Pariwar Dal and subsequently the Rastriya Swatantra Party last year.

He acknowledged the challenges faced by lawmakers in effectively performing their legislative duties due to frequent disruptions in the House and the insufficient business for it. He urged the government to allocate more business to the House.”Several bills are in pending. We, the RSP lawmakers are seeking our active legislative roles. But the government does not allocate adequate business to the House,” the lawmaker said.

Expressing his concern over the procedures to formulate the draft of law, he said this practice be corrected. “Any draft of law prepared by the respective ministry travels through the ministry of law, the ministry of finance and the Council of Ministers before it arrives the House. This is a procedural error and it should be corrected. There should be the engagement of lawmakers, stockholders, authorities concerned and experts from the very beginning of the draft formulation.”

In addition to this, Parliament is the forum for drawing the government’s attention to matters of public concerns, said Chaudhary who expressed dissatisfactions with the tendency prevalent in the political sphere to reach among the people only during elections.
He also voiced concerns about issues, as reported, faced by the public, such as obstacles created by local governments in road access, access to drinking water, and vital registration facilities. The lawmaker urged the government to promptly address the issues of flood and landless survivors including of Tikapur in Kailali. —