Valley
Oppn obstructs House for 2nd straight day
Four opposition parties obstructed the proceedings of the Legislature-Parliament for the second consecutive day on Friday protesting against the registration of the constitution amendment bill.
Four opposition parties obstructed the proceedings of the Legislature-Parliament for the second consecutive day on Friday protesting against the registration of the constitution amendment bill.
Lawmakers from the four opposition parties including the CPN-UML stood at their respective seats obstructing the House business.
Before resorting to the obstruction, CPN (ML) General Secretary CP Mainali accused the government of working at the behest of “unseen forces” by separating the Hill districts from Province 5. The next meeting of Parliament has been scheduled for Sunday.
Mainali asked whether Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was bitten by a “rabid dog” to work against the sentiment of the people by proposing to separate the Hill and Tarai districts in the province. After lawmakers from the ruling alliance objected to his language, Speaker Onasari Gharti asked the secretariat officials to erase his speech from the record and warned Mainali not to use such words.
She had also requested the opposition parties to allow the House proceedings as the amendment bill was not on the day’s agenda.
However, the opposition parties refused to budge.
The dissenting parties have 194 lawmakers in Parliament, which is less than one third of the total 594 MPs.
The meeting was scheduled to continue discussion on the impeachment motion registered against Lokman Singh Karki, the suspended chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
Speaker meets President Bhandari
KATHMANDU: Amid growing rift between the ruling and opposition parties over the constitution amendment bill, Speaker Onasari Gharti met President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Friday.
The Speaker informed the head of state that she was trying to bring all the parties together for resolving the row. She met Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former PM and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Thursday, asking them to resolve the issues through dialogue. The Speaker’s Secretariat said in a statement that the President asked her to play a facilitating role for building consensus among the parties. Amid reservations from the opposition parties, the government tabled the bill in the Parliament Secretariat on Tuesday to amend four provisions of the constitution. (PR)