Kathmandu : Parliamentarians in today's meeting of House of Representatives (HoR) posed questions to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav about his work and performance.
Responding to their queries, Minister Yadav said monitoring of food items were stepped up in the market to ensure the constitutional rights of people to quality food. He said that the erring sellers were brought to book.
"The Ministry would continue with the surveillance not only during the festival but during the normal times too," pledged Yadav.
Parliamentarian Uma Regmi had asked Minister Yadav what measures were taken by the Ministry to curb the sale of adulterated food items in the market while Dr Dila Shangraula and Rangamati Shahi had questioned about steps taken by the Ministry to tackle black marketeering.
Minister Yadav said that works were in progress for controlling black marketeering and action was taken against those dealing in adulterated food.
On a query about ensuring quality in the school, universities, hospitals, airports, park and public toilets as per the policy and programme of the government, he replied that a technical team was formed for the same and it was in the process of implementation.
Similarly, Ram Bahadur Bista asked about plans of the government to prevent smuggling of the precious stones in Binayak Municipality in Achham. Dilendra Prasad Badu and Prem Suwal, posing their complimentary question, asked if there were less cases of smuggling of such stones lately to which the Minister asserted that all measures were taken to address this issue.
Minister Yadav responded that government had forwarded the process for study and excavation of the stones. The stones will be excavated and will be process and exported, he assured.
Likewise, Pushpa Bhusal underscored the need to destroy the adulterated food items, arguing that around 45 per cent of the total fruits and vegetable items imported to Nepal were found to have around 80 per cent concentration of pesticides.
Stating that test were being conducted on fruits and vegetables imported to Nepal from abroad, Minister Yadav shared that test on pesticides were conducted on the vegetables and fruits produced in Nepal as well considering the chances of usage of pesticides on it.
