Nepalnews.com Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Maoist MPs boycott House sitting; CPN-M central meet deferred again

Maoist lawmakers boycotted Tuesday’s sitting of the legislature parliament, accusing the government of continuous indifference towards complaints of involuntary disappearances and lack of ‘coalition culture’ in the functioning of the cabinet, among others.

The Maoist MPs left the parliament hall as soon as Speaker Subas Nemwang announced the start of the day’s proceedings. They also chanted slogans against the government as they walked out of the parliament.

Last week, the Maoist MPs had boycotted the voting on the government's annual budget saying that it failed to reflect the spirit of the Janandolan-2. However, the budget was passed by majority vote.

Meanwhile, the Maoist central committee meeting, which was to resume today, has been deferred until 8 am Wednesday.

This is the third time in a row that the central committee meet has been cancelled. The meeting scheduled for yesterday was cancelled as party chairman Prachanda was unable to attend due to “health reasons”.

The reason behind the cancellation of the meeting, which will endorse the decisions of the fifth extended meeting (plenum) of the party was not immediately known. However, Maoist deputy commander Barsaman Pun ‘Ananta’ said that the meeting was cancelled as “there was not sufficient homework for it”.

As this meeting is also tipped to make a major reshuffle in the responsibilities of top leadership of the party, the meeting would start only after the leaders reach a consensus on it, Pun said. nepalnews.com mk/ag Aug 14 07