The House of Representatives has been paralysed for two weeks now as ruling and opposition parties continue to spar over the ‘visit visa’ scam.

After talks between ruling and opposition parties on Monday also failed to break the deadlock, the next meeting of the lower house has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 1 pm. The House meeting on Monday was adjourned for half an hour without entering the agenda due to obstruction by the opposition. As no consensus could be reached among the political parties, Parliament secretariat posted a notice stating that the session has been postponed until Wednesday afternoon.

The Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has unearthed a vast network operating the scam with the help of officials at the immigration office at the Tribhuvan International Airport. The immigration office chief, joint secretary Tirtharaj Bhattarai, was removed from his duties and is now facing inquiry from the anti-graft body.

Leaders say they will continue cross-party discussions on Tuesday to seek a way out of the crisis that has held back the House since last month.

As reported in mainstream and social media, the network involved in the scam has links to the private secretariat of Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, who continues to defend himself.

The visit visa scandal involves senior officials close to Home Minister Lekhak, including members of his secretariat. As a result, some leaders in his Nepali Congress party as well as some opposition leaders have demanded his resignation.

Besides the CIAA, the Prime Minister’s Office also took exception to the incident and instructed Home Secretary Gokarna Mani Duwadi to provide details and the numbers of civil servants and staff posted at TIA immigration.

The CIAA found that more staff were deployed at the TIA immigration office than the number of sanctioned posts. As per instructions from the CIAA, the Prime Minister’s Office wrote to the home secretary seeking clarification, said an official at the Prime Minister’s Office.

It was after the CIAA summoned joint secretary Bhattarai that the visit visa scam was exposed. Opposition parties have been obstructing the House proceedings since May 27, demanding the resignation of Lekhak, and formation of a high-level investigation committee on the scandal.

Besides Speaker Devraj Ghimire, leaders, mainly from the Nepali Congress, the CPN (Maoist Centre), and the Rastriya Swatantra Party have engaged in cross-party talks for weeks but failed to break the logjam.

Currently, talks are mostly taking place between the Congress and the RSP, and leaders are trying to find a middle way.

After the RSP forwarded its proposal, Congress chief whip Shyam Ghimire stated that discussions are ongoing. According to him, no agreement has been reached so far.

The Congress has also been holding separate discussions with the RSP on this issue for the past few days. As there could be no agreement on Monday either, the meeting of the House of Representatives has been postponed until Wednesday.

The RSP has demanded an investigation committee, but the Congress is not in favour of forming a committee to look into Home Minister Lekhak. Even Prime Minister KP Oli and CPN-UML are not in a mood to form such a committee.

The Congress argues that as the CIAA is already looking into the issue, it is unnecessary to form a separate committee at this time. To resolve the deadlock in the House, the Congress has been holding separate and joint discussions with various parties under the leadership of its deputy president, Purna Bahadur Khadka.

Speaker Ghimire has been having continuous discussions to remove the obstruction in Parliament, while the parties have accelerated internal talks and coordination. The ruling Congress has held separate discussions with opposition parties to resolve the issue. Although the Maoist Centre has shown some flexibility on the matter, there has as yet been no agreement between the RSP and the Congress.

“The RSP’s position is rigid this time,” said a Congress leader. “Otherwise other opposition parties like the Maoist Centre and CPN (Unified Socialist) are positive about resuming the House session.”

After the failure of repeated rounds of talks, the RSP on Monday released a draft that the party had earlier forwarded for agreement with the Nepali Congress and other parties.

“No party seemed ready to release the draft that we have been discussing,” Manish Jha, an RSP lawmaker, told the Post. “That is why we made it public, so that people will know what we want.”

The draft proposes a high-level investigation committee within five days to conduct a multi-dimensional investigation into the involvement of government bodies, travel agencies, manpower companies, airlines, and both Nepali and foreign organisations in human trafficking and organised crime under the guise of visit visas, without affecting the ongoing investigation of the CIAA.

The party has also proposed a legislative oversight group.

The proposal includes the formation of a performance committee to define the jurisdiction, structure, management, and authority of the investigation committee. Additionally, the performance committee is to draft the working procedure for the investigation committee within five days, form the committee, and initiate its work.

The RSP has further proposed that the government should fully cooperate with and facilitate the investigation of the CIAA into corruption-related activities at the airport immigration office, without any interference.

Moreover, the party has proposed that a high standard of transparency be maintained during the formation of the investigation committee, conduction of investigation, and making the study report public.

“We are focusing on policy-related matters,” said Jha. “The committee will identify and analyse the policy- and system-related weaknesses in visit visas, immigration, labour permits, and others.”

On the charge of dereliction of duty, the RSP has demanded the home minister’s resignation.