Banking News – The main opposition Nepali Congress has questioned the government’s priorities, saying that citizens in remote areas are struggling to access basic medicines and treatment while ministers are provided with helicopter services when they fall ill.

Speaking at Tuesday’s House of Representatives meeting, Nepali Congress Chief Whip Basana Thapa said people in remote areas were not receiving essential medicines and relief, while the government was spending millions of rupees to charter helicopters to transport ministers who become ill.

Thapa questioned the government’s priorities, saying that citizens in remote areas were unable to obtain even basic medicines such as paracetamol, relief supplies and medical treatment, while large amounts of public money were being spent on airlifting ministers.

“Ministers who have grown accustomed to mineral water and jar water in Kathmandu are brought back to Kathmandu by helicopter at a cost of millions after falling ill in Karnali because they cannot adjust to the food,” she said. “A government that can spend Rs. 30–35 million to bring a minister back cannot spend Rs. 3 million to provide relief to its citizens.”

She also questioned the government’s claims of good governance, saying that the state had failed to provide even a single LPG cylinder to citizens struggling to meet their daily needs.

Thapa said the value of the lives of ministers and ordinary citizens should be equal in the eyes of the state. “A minister’s life is just as valuable as the life of a citizen in Karnali. A helicopter can reach the Prime Minister, but an ambulance cannot reach a sick citizen? Is this the government of the people?” she questioned.

She urged the government to reconsider its priorities, pointing to the contrast between plans for major expressway and infrastructure projects and the inability to provide essential medicines and relief to people in Karnali.

According to Thapa, such unequal treatment by the government has prevented citizens in remote areas from experiencing genuine good governance.