By Amarendra Yadav

Kathmandu, Apr. 9: At a time when the political and non-political organisations are donating to the government fund to fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the country, Samajbadi Party Nepal (SP-N) and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJP-N) have also contributed to the government fund.
The Samajbadi Party-Nepal has deposited Rs 1 million to the Coronavirus Infection, Control and Treatment Fund as per its promise.
According to party’s vice-chair Renu Yadav, they collected the amount from its federal lawmakers and donated to the fund.
The party has altogether 18 members representing in the Federal Parliament, 17 in House of Representatives and one in the National Assembly.
Among them, Hari Narayan Rauniyar, elected Lower House member from Parsa district, has automatically been suspended over corruption charges.
Weeks ago, the SP-N had announced the amount to support the government’s initiatives against the spread of the pandemic.
Similarly, the RJP-N has contributed salary of 15 days of its federal parliamentarians to the government fund.
RJP-N general secretary Keshav Jha said that the party had recently decided to donate half a month’s salaries of its federal lawmakers to the fund.
As per the decision, the party asked the Secretariat of the Federal Parliament to deposit the salaries of 15 days of its lawmakers to the fund, Jha stated.
The RJP-N has a total of 19 parliamentarians in the federal parliament, 17 in the Lower House and 2 in the Upper House.
However, Resham Chaudhary, has been suspended as an elected member of House of the Representatives after the court convicted him over the Tikapur violence.
According to vice-chair Yadav and general secretary Jha, their parties had no policy to distribute relief materials on their own to the poor and daily wage labourers.
“We and our party think that the federal government and state governments should distribute relief package through a one-door system. If the governments do it following the one-door system, there will be a slim chance of irregularities in distribution of the relief pacakage,” they said.
State 2 government collects over Rs 10 million
Meanwhile, the State 2 Government has collected over 10 million rupees in its Coronavirus Prevention, Control and Treatment Fund.
Weeks ago, Chief Minister Lal Babu Raut had established the Fund to collect cash in order to battle the spread of coronavirus and support the poor and low-income people in the State.
According to CM Raut’s press coordinator Aatish Mishra, Rs 13,675,000 has been gathered in the Fund till Tuesday.
Almost all of the contributors have handed over cheques to Chief Minister Raut as per their announcement.
Bhatbhateni Super Market had announced to donate Rs 2,500,000, and was going to deposit the amount soon, Mishra said.
Most of the contributors are banks and financial companies. Among the contributors, Nepali Congress is the only political party that has recently donated Rs 407,500 to the State Fund.