The meeting of the House of Representatives called for 11am on Thursday has been rescheduled for 4pm.

The lower house secretariat published a notice announcing the rescheduling of the meeting.

It was decided to reschedule the meeting called at 11 am to 4 pm after Speaker Devraj Ghimire, during a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee, discussed with the chief whips and whips of the major political parties with regard to ending the House deadlock.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal requested the Speaker to reschedule the meeting, saying that he was in talks with the main opposition Nepali Congress to end the House obstruction.

The main opposition has been obstructing the budget session of the parliament since its commencement on May 10, demanding a parliamentary probe against Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane. The issue has remained a major bone of contention, leading to the current House deadlock. However, the main opposition agreed to allow President Ramchandra Paudel to table policies and programmes.

The parliament deadlock is likely to be further complicated as Nepali Congress leaders have announced to raise the Giribandhu tea estate land swap issue. CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli is accused of giving permission to swap land of the estate causing a loss of billions of rupees to the state coffers.

Leaders from the two parties have been engaged in blaming each other on the issue for the past couple of days.

The largest party also resorted to the obstruction of several proceedings of the House of Representatives in the winter session that was prorogued in mid-April. As a result, the House could not make much headway regarding law-making.