Winter session prorogued; budget session from Wednesday
The winter session of the legislature parliament has been prorogued from 11 pm, Monday, three months after it was summoned on March 29, 2009.
The session was prorogued Monday after the Unified CPN (Maoist), which had been obstructing normal proceedings of the House for more than two months, allowed the resumption of the House following a four-point agreement among the three largest parties in the CA.
The obstruction of the House by the Maoists had prevented the prorogation of the House.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal addressed the House Monday.
Maoist chairman Dahal said his party adopted maximum flexibility to allow the House for the welfare of the country and that the obstruction of the House would resume after a month if the agreements are not fulfilled by then.
The parties have agreed to categorically define Prime Minister’s and President’s jurisdiction and forge a consensus among the parties about the same within a month.
PM Nepal, in his address to the parliament, vowed to address the issue of defining powers of the president and prime minister within a month in consultation with other parties.
Addressing the Maoist demand of maintaining civil supremacy, PM Nepal said nobody is in favour of a military supremacy. The very idea of republican set up is to maintain civil supremacy.
Dahal spent a lot of time of his address talking about the army chief, president’s move and civil supremacy.
PM Nepal and Dahal also engaged in venting ire at each other during their addresses.
“I understand the PM is in a difficult position.” Dahal said. “I faced a lot of challenges even though I was an elected PM. I would not a PM made through a remote control face difficulty.”
In reply PM Nepal said, “If I, who has a support of 359-lawmakers in the parliament is remote controlled, where is a leader of 238-lawmakers controlled from?”
I don’t take it unusual as I understand such expression came out of the pain of having to quit the government, PM Nepal said.
Meanwhile, the budget session of the parliament is likely to start from Wednesday. Finance minister Surendra Pande has said the budget for the new fiscal year would be presented on July 13. The preparations for the next fiscal year’s budget is almost over, finance ministry has said. The size of the next budget is likely to be about Rs 280 billion. nepalnews.com
