Upper house meeting postponed until Jan 31

KATHMANDU, Jan 28: The meeting of the upper house has been postponed until January 31 following protest from the main opposition party Nepal Congress.

Secretary of the National Assembly, Rajendra Phuyal, had tabled the National Medical Education Bill 2075 forwarded by the House of Representatives with its message in the Assembly’s second meeting on Monday. But NC lawmakers, protesting the Bill, stood from their seats as a symbol of protest and obstructed the meeting.  A meeting of the House of Representatives on Friday had endorsed the Bill amid NC resistance.

Amidst the obstruction, the National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timalsina announced that there would not be the ‘zero hour’ and ‘special hour’ in today’s session, and that various points have been removed from the meeting agenda.

Following this announcement, the main opposition party, Nepali Congress, lawmakers stood up from their respective seats, trooped in front of the rostrum and continued chanting slogans.

The upper house secretary Phuyal tabled the National Medical Education Bill 2075 BS amidst the sloganeering by the opposition party lawmakers.

Thereafter, NA chair Timalsina adjourned the meeting for half an hour. The first meeting of the National Assembly was also postponed due to the obstruction by the Nepali Congress.

After he failed to run the business, Timalsina adjourned the meeting till January 31.

However, the meeting has accepted the proposal to consider the approval of the Bill. The lawmakers have been asked to register their amendments within 72 hours.

NC lawmakers also obstructed the today’s meeting to protest the government’s no-decision regarding under which bodies the hospitals named after its two top leaders the late Girija Prasad Koirala and the late Sushil Koirala were to be operated.

The NC had obstructed the National Assembly meetings on January 7 and 21 before this also over the same issue.