Nepali lawmaker challenges PM Oli to ride her scooter to experience pollution level

An Opposition lawmaker in Nepal on Thursday challenged Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to ride pillion on her scooter, criticising him for saying that people of Kathmandu need not wear pollution masks. Opposition Nepali Congress lawmaker Rangamati Shahi, who travels on a scooter, ridiculed the prime minister's remarks that people in Kathmandu no longer need to wear masks to prevent themselves from breathing dust particles.

Shahi challenged Oli to travel on her scooter along roads in Kathmandu. “I’d like to invite the prime minister to sit behind my scooter and roam Kathmandu. I guess by doing so he will realise how polluted Kathmandu really is,” Shahi said, speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Development and Technology here.

Oli, speaking at a programme in Kathmandu, claimed that during his one and a half year rule, pollution level has been brought to total control in the capital city, where 50 per cent of the people used to wear masks while travelling before he became the prime minister. Oli’s claim that no one needs to put on a mask in Kathmandu was ridiculed on social media as well.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)