The fiscal budget was passed by an overwhelming majority in parliament as all but two lawmakers -- Ek Raj Bhandari and Padam Lal Bishwakarma -- of the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) remained absent from the meeting.
Parliament had passed the Appropriations Bill, which authorizes the government to spend money, on Tuesday. Only Bhandari and Bishwakarma represented the UCPN (Maoist) at the meeting on Tuesday as well. A parliamentary party meeting of the largest party that has 237 lawmakers in the 601-member House decided to show only a symbolic presence at the meeting.
The endorsement of the budget comes as a great relief to the government as it was already hard pressed for budgetary funds, with the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) obstructing House proceedings over the last five months.
The government was becoming unable to fund even government hospitals, prisons and other entities and it had also stopped providing essential services to the people. For the same reason the government recently withheld the salaries of ministers, lawmakers, Nepal Army and Nepal Police personnel and other government employees.
The endorsement of the budget became possible after the Maoist party agreed to allow parliament to function for three days for that very purpose. Three months ago also the Maoist party had allowed parliament to run for a few days to pass the Vote on Accounts Bill. The Speaker has called the next meeting of parliament for Friday.
Speaker urges lasting solution
Speaker Subas Nembang has urged the top leadership of the political parties to find a lasting solution to the obstruction of parliament.
He said he has been consistently pressing the top leaders to build a favorable environment for a politics of consensus. "I have talked to [former prime minister and Nepali Congress President] Girija Prasad Koirala, other ruling party leaders and UCPN Maoist leaders about running parliament without obstructions," Nembang told reporters. He said that the parties should allow parliament to function continuously as some urgent bills have been pending for months.
"A bill regarding implementation of the republic needs to be urgently passed by the House as it has been prepared to correct more than 100 laws, removing irrelevant wording like ´his majesty´s government´ from those laws," he said.
He said the proposed high-level mechanism could be instrumental in creating such an environment. The Speaker, who has been consistently advocating consensus as a way out of the protracted political deadlock, urged the leaders to improve relations among the parties as the situation is now on the mend.
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