Nembang asks govt to send ministers to House meetings regularly

KATHMANDU, July 6: Speaker Subash Nembang on Wednesday asked the government to regularly send ministers to the House meetings and respect the norms and values of parliament.



Nembang issued the ruling after lawmakers from the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) drew his attention toward the absence of ministers in the parliamentary meeting on Wednesday that met to discuss the government´s policy and programs.[break]



“Respecting the sanctity of parliament, I asked the ministers to attend parliamentary meetings regularly,” Nembang stated. The meeting, which was scheduled for 11 am was delayed by 35 minutes due to the absence of government ministers.



As per the parliamentary tradition, there must be some government ministers in each and every parliamentary meeting. The government led by Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal had decided to send at least two ministers to parliamentary meetings from now onwards.



Govt policy and programs under fire



At the parliamentary discussions on Wednesday, lawmakers from all parties came down heavily on the government for its failure to unambiguously categorize priorities.



UML leader Pradip Gyawali said that the government´s policy and programs is full of faults and has failed to state the government´s priorities.



He said that the conclusion of the peace process and constitution drafting should have been the topmost priority of the government. “Due to the prolonged political transition, the state has been rendered weak and the non-state actors are becoming stronger,” he said.



The UML leader also suggested that the government strengthen the government´s foreign policy and expressed concern over the fact that the prime minister and ministers have not gone on foreign trips as required.



Gyawali also asked the government to immediately remove the phrase “people´s war” from the official document of the policy and programs saying that the phrase has already been removed by the Constitutional Committee (CC) of the CA.



Maoist lawmaker Dev Gurung stated that policy and programs needs revision as there is no mention about the national security and foreign policy.



Similarly, NC lawmaker Kul Bahadur Gurung criticized the government for failing to clearly state the government´s priorities. He also asked the government to bring out programs for the rehabilitation of those displaced during the Maoist insurgency.

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