Kathmandu, 13 May : Lawmakers have demanded that the government officials including President, VVIPs and VIPs should use the government-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) on their foreign visits.

They also demanded that a policy and plan should be formulated incorporating a provision to this effect, suggesting to make it mandatory for the officials to adhere to such provision.

The demand was made at the meeting of the International Relations and Labour Committee of the parliament on Friday. Referring to the recent visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to China via an aircraft belonging to a private company, lawmaker Bal Bahadur KC said that the use of private aircraft by a high level official like PM was not good.

Another lawmaker Jitendra Narayan Dev said that in neighbouring India, a provision is in place making it mandatory for Indian government officials to use Indian government aircraft on their foreign visits. "So such provision should be formulated and enforced in Nepal too," he said.

The lawmakers also suggested operating flights on time and proritising service and security of the national flag carrier. The meeting was also attended by the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ananda Prasad Pokharel, secretary Prem Kumar Rai, Inspector General of Police Upendra Kanta Aryal and director of the Department of Immigration Kedar Neupane, among others.

Meanwhile, the meeting also directed the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to operate flights on time, carry out reforms in the management of taxi, its parking lot and sanitation inside the Tribhuvan International Airport.

It also directed the ministry to manage stores inside the airport, set standards to determine ticket price of NAC flights and carry out reforms in security and ensure that airport employees and guards treat passengers well. RSS