Kathmandu, May 13

After discussing it for four days, the Legislature-Parliament today endorsed the government’s policy and programme with majority votes.

The policy and programme of the government for fiscal year 2016-17 was presented by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari in the Parliament on May 8.

Responding to the issues raised by the lawmakers during the discussion, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said the nation should not forget that Nepal had reached this point following a peace process making constitutional changes through Comprehensive Peace Accord.

“Remaining tasks of peace process would be completed in coordination with the parties of the peace process and the government was aware of the common roadmap of transitional justice and CPA,” PM Oli said.

Unified CPN-Maoist, a major coalition partner of Oli-led government that was also party to the peace process, has been objecting to the government’s policy and programme for not incorporating the issues raised by the nine-point agreement signed between the two coalition partners.

PM Oli said the problems raised by the lawmakers were not created by his government but it inherited them from the previous governments, adding that the government was committed to solving them.

Despite protest from MPs of the opposition party, PM said Kathmandu-Nijgadh fast track would be constructed by Nepal government as per the direction of the Parliament.

The PM wondered why the recalling of Nepal’s ambassador to India should affect bilateral relations between the two countries. He said lawmakers’ protest was aimed at improving ties with India and therefore urged the lawmakers not to be influenced by such comments.

He said it was possible for Nepal to produce 10,000 MW of electricity within 10 years through speedy and multiple projects, though it seems impossible in the context that Nepal has developed only 1,000 MW of electricity in 105 years.

He said civic polls, which had not been conducted for nearly 15 years, would be held as scheduled.

As soon as the PM responded to 32 supplementary queries, the policy and programme tabled by the speaker for endorsement was passed with majority votes of the Parliament.