After ignoring the House Speaker’s repeated rulings for two weeks, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will appear in Parliament on Sunday to address the concerns of the opposition parties.

Since February 18, Speaker Devraj Ghimire has issued four rulings to the government to inform the House of Representatives about the steps being taken to implement the report of the committee formed to investigate the Balkumari incident in which two youths died in a clash with the police. He, however, has been ignoring the ruling.

The CPN-UML, the Rastriya Swatantra Party and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party have been resorting to brief obstructions of the House proceedings every meeting demanding the government’s response. They allow the House to function after a ruling by the Speaker to the Dahal government to answer the opposition’s concerns. He made a similar ruling on Friday as well.

“Like in earlier meetings, I would direct the government to answer the concerns being raised in the House Sunday, on March 3,” he said after the three parties obstructed the House proceedings.

The prime minister also has agreed to act as per the ruling. Sending a letter to the Parliament Secretariat, Ganesh Prasad Pandey, secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, said Dahal could not appear in the House on Friday because he was outside Kathmandu to attend a scheduled event.

“I would like to request you to arrange for the prime minister’s address on March 3, Sunday,” read the letter. On Friday, Dahal was in Chitwan to inaugurate the "Visit Bharatpur" campaign.

Speaking at the House meeting on Friday, the opposition lawmakers said the prime minister was demeaning the Parliament by ignoring its rulings. Surya

Thapa, a UML member, satirically demanded to form a commission to find the “missing prime minister.”

A committee headed by Shekhar Poudel, a former High Court judge, has pointed to the negligence of Prakash Jwala, the minister for physical infrastructure and transport, as one reason behind the deadly December 29 incident.

Opposition parties at the February 18 meeting of the House had demanded the minister’s dismissal.

Following the Speaker’s ruling, Prime Minister Dahal pledged on the day to take necessary action after receiving the report. As he failed to act on his commitment, the opposition lawmakers obstructed House proceedings on Thursday until Ghimire issued another ruling.

No government representative has shown up at successive meetings. The first meeting of the House on February 23 was adjourned as the opposition and ruling party lawmakers clashed and blamed each other for not maintaining Parliament’s dignity.

Opposition lawmakers waited until Monday for the prime minister to announce that he had sacked Jwala, along with Minister for Health and Population Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sudan Kirati.

Basnet is under the scanner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority for alleged corruption in the procurement of the Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramocs) for the Nepal Telecommunication Authority while Kirati has been blamed for a controversial decision to lease out Ramgram Stupa in Lumbini.

The Poudel-led committee on February 17 submitted its report to Narayan Kaji Shrestha, deputy prime minister and minister for home affairs. Two days later, he handed over the report to Dahal. At a Cabinet meeting on February 19, Dahal had promised to study the report and take action accordingly. But he is yet to act.

Birendra Shah from Achham and Sujan Rawat of Dailekh had lost their lives on December 29 after the police used force to contain a protest. A clash had occurred between the aspirants for jobs as migrant workers in South Korea and the police, resulting in the fatalities.

Minister Jwala had taken the tense route to return to Singha Durbar after attending a party meeting. The protesters attacked his vehicle, which led the security to use force. Jwala comes from the CPN (Unified Socialist), a fringe party in the Dahal-led coalition.

The prime minister has tasked two ministers to study the report and come up with their suggestions on Saturday. "The prime minister is waiting for their recommendations. He will respond to Parliament based on those," said an aide to Dahal.