Parliament session resumes; govt committed to enforce agreement

Kathmandu, June 12. The obstruction to the meeting of the Legislature-Parliament was finally cleared after the government expressed its readiness to address the demands raised by the opposition parties, including enforcing the past agreement and addressing the issue of budget transfer.

The budget session of the parliament had been obstructed since May 30.

The agreement was forged following repeated rounds of talks among the leaders of the major political parties at the CA building on Wednesday.

The parliament session resumed finally after Speaker Subas Nembang provided time to Law Minister Narahari Acharya to speak on behalf of the government.

On the occasion, Law Minister Acharya said a request has been made to the Speaker to form a parliamentary committee to investigate into the questions raised over the CA elections 2070.

He also said that the work of forming a commission to study the agreements reached by the government in the past including one related to Madhesh movement has reached the final stage.

“Our sole objective is to draft a new constitution and the government is ready to provide every possible support,” he said.

The parliament meeting that was called for 5:00 p.m. began only at 8:00 pm in the late evening.

Leadership of the High-level political committee was another bone of contention among the parties, with the UCPN (Maoist) claiming a permanent leadership of the Committee while other parties standing in favour of a rotational chairmanship.

Meanwhile, giving justification on the budget transfer, Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat argued that it was done based on legal provision. There were two sorts of virements (budget transfers), he said, adding that information about the virement is updated in the Ministry’s website.

He further said the amount of the virement reported in media was less than the actual virement.

According to him, till June 2 of the current fiscal year, a total of Rs 35.31 billion budget was transferred. He also made clear on the allocation of budget transfer on different sectors as in education, election, home ministry.

Minister Dr Mahat argued that every government after the first Constituent Assembly elections practiced virement.

Following his views on budget transfer, Kamal Thapa of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, demanded to probe into scattering of budget by the present government.

Upendra Yadav of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal stressed on implementation of the agreements made with the Madhes-centric political parties. The trend of budget transfer must be stopped, he added.

Similarly, Prem Suwal of Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party said there was no relevance of the high-level political committee.

Also speaking on the occasion, Shiv Lal Thapa and Atahar Kamal Musalman demanded party syndicate be scrapped and security to all CA members be strengthened. RSS