Bhattarai, addressing the House meeting, announced that a cabinet meeting earlier in the day had decided to revoke the decision in view of the protests by opposition parties in parliament and the stay order issued by the Supreme Court.[break]
“The decision taken in the cabinet meeting on January 12 will no longer remain effective and it will not be implemented,” the prime minister announced at the House meeting. “The government will make necessary arrangements within a week to solve the problems of the peasants pending since the insurgency.”
He urged one and all not to construe the government move as a victory or defeat of any party but to take it as an initiative aimed at resolving the deadlock in parliament.
The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and other small political parties in the opposition bench had continuously been obstructing parliament proceedings for the last four weeks demanding withdrawal of the controversial decision to legalize the land transactions carried out under the arbitration of the “people´s government” during the insurgency.
Cautiously welcoming the government decision, the opposition parties allowed resumption of the regular parliament business.
Lawmakers Laxman Ghimire and Gagan Thapa from NC and Ramnath Dhakal from CPN-UML said they welcomed the revocation of the controversial decision but added that they would wait and see what measures the government takes within a week to resolve the problems of peasants.
Maoist lawmaker Janardhan Sharma described the government decision as a partial solution to the problem. He said though it was a welcome move the cabinet decision was incomplete in that it didn´t resolve the problems of peasants who struck land deals during the insurgency.
“This decision would be acceptable if it succeeds in resolving the problems of peasants. Otherwise, it will be an unfortunate decision,” Sharma said at the meeting. He suggested to the government to solve the problems without delay.
Opposition lawmakers ask Maoists to disclose income source
Addressing the meeting, NC´s Thapa fiercely criticized top Maoist leadership for allegedly embezzling the money released from the state coffers in the name of former Maoist combatants staying in various cantonments.
He said the Maoist leaders and the government must answer some genuine questions raised by the Maoist party´s rank and file, combatants and the public over the party´s and its leaders´ financial activities.
“Nepali people agreed to dole out hard-earned money only in the hope that peace would prevail in the country. The taxpayers accepted the government decision to dole out money, which was meant for construction of schools, bridges and roads, to the Maoist combatants, aspiring peace in the country,” said Thapa.
He also demanded that the details of income and expenses of the Maoist party recently submitted to the Election Commission be independently probed and the largest party disclose its sources of income. “Enough is enough and the Maoist party can no longer evade these questions anymore,” he said.
Also, Dhakal demanded that an independent probe commission be formed to study the irregularities in the cantonments mainly in view of the complaints by the Maoist combatants. The combatants opting for voluntary retirement have complained that their commanders have been seizing their checks before cashing them.
“The Maoist party has announced that it will distribute around 1.5 billion rupees to the combatants who had earlier left the cantonments to join YCL [Young Communist League],” said Dhakal. "Where does the Maoist party receive such huge sums of money from? This question must be properly answered.”
Related news:
- Govt likely to revoke land transaction decision today
- SC stays govt decision on conflict-era land deal legalization
- Undo land deal legalization for further talks: NC, UML
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