Kathmandu, March 29

Minister for Supplies Ganeshman Pun today clarified to his party’s Members of Parliament that the fuel crisis was still haunting people because of the problem of storage though sufficient fuel was coming from India.

During discussion with the MPs of Unified CPN-Maoist here today, Pun further said managing the fuel coming from India was a tough job also because people had started storing fuel, besides the fact that there are less storage facilities in the country.

To implement the party’s recent central committee meeting decision to make the work of ministers

more effective, the parliamentary party of Unified CPN-Maoist today organised separate discussions of members of parliament with the ministers.

Chief Whip Hitraj Pande said the parliamentary party today held separate discussions of the MPs with three ministers  Home Minister Shakti Basnet, Agriculture Minister Haribol Gajurel

and Supplies Minister Ganeshman Pun at the parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar.

During the meetings MPs had questioned the ministers about their concerns regarding their respective ministries and also gave suggestions to make their works effective.

The MPs also questioned the ministers about the government’s failure to curb black-marketing. Both the Home Minister and Supplies Minister informed the MPs about their efforts to curb black-marketing and told them that the efforts would be expedited.

Agriculture Minister Haribol Gajurel said MPs raised several questions and gave worthy suggestions to improve performance. “I took the opportunity to brief the MPs about the activities and problems of the ministry,” he said.

UCPN-M MP Rupa Maharjan said the discussion was fruitful because all the MPs could express their concerns as they have been complaining that ministers’ had failed to address the issues of their own MPs.

Chief Whip Pande said both MPs and ministers hailed the parliamentary party’s initiative of organising the discussion, claiming that the meeting was fruitful because it saved time besides ensuring understanding of all the issues.

He said the other ministers of the party would discuss with the MPs on Thursday.

“We are planning to give continuity to the discussions after assessing the first phase of discussion,” he said.