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First session of the parliament begins

The first session of the reinstated House of Representatives (HoR) has begun at the Parliament Building, Singha Durbar, Friday afternoon.

The first parliamentary session was presided by deputy speaker of the HoR, Chitra Lekha Yadav.

His Majesty King reinstated the parliament, which was dissolved in May 2002, on Monday as per the roadmap of the seven-party alliance.

The Singha Durbar premises wore a new look after four years. Lawmakers seemed delighted to enter the parliament after four years.

The session was delayed for a few hours, as the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has not been able to attend the session due to his ill health.

The session started after it received the letter from PM Koirala with a proposal to go for the election of the constituent assembly to be filed in the session.

The swearing-in of the newly appointed PM, Koirala, has been delayed due to his ill health.

The opposition political parties say homework on the modalities the election of the constituent assembly is the main task of the HoR.

They have also said they will form a powerful commission to initiate action against those found using excessive force to suppress the pro-democracy movement and to provide compensation to the victims of the government clampdown.

The session is also expected to remove the red corner notice and terrorist tag of the Maoists and reciprocate the unilateral truce announced by the Maoists.

Out of the total 205 members, only 202 MPs ware attending today’s session. While the NC has expelled two of its MPs, Prakash Koirala and Narayan Singh Pun, for joining the royal government against the party policy and UML parliamentarian Hem Narayan Yadav was killed a few years back.

Various organisations and rights activists organised sit-in in front of Singha Durbar to pressure the lawmakers to work in favour of the people and announce unconditional election to the constituent assembly. nepalnews.com pb Apr 28 06