House meeting resumes, PM Oli addresses

KATHMANDU: The Legislature-Parliament resumed its meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli informed the House about the death of 13 Nepalis working in Kabul in a suicide bomb attack and repatriation of their bodies. He condemned the terrorist act, and expressed the government's readiness to bear the expenses of treatment of the injured.

After the Kabul incident, he said, the Government of Nepal has decided to impose ban on foreign employment to Nepali citizens in crisis-hit Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya.

Clarification on Reconstruction 

Forging clarification over the reconstruction work in the wake of last year's devastating earthquake sequence, Prime Minister Oli said the government was serious about the relief and reconstruction.

He told the House the Nepal Reconstruction Authority started its work as soon as the required act was formulated. He reminded the House that the NRA's work was delayed for some time due to the border blockade.

He refused the charges that the CPN-UML-led government has politicised the NRA and said there was no political bias on the NRA's work. He claimed the NRA's work was transparent.

Responding to the Nepali Congress's demand to provide Rs 2,00,000 in a single installment to earthquake survivors to build their houses, Prime Minister Oli said if the main opposition agreed then the existing work-procedure can be amended in order to provide an additional Rs 1,00,000 in second installment to those who have already collected Rs 50,000.

This way the concern of the main opposition has been addressed, he said.

In the mean time, the lawmakers of Nepali Congress, including the party's President Sher Bahadur Deuba, stood up and interrupted the Prime Minister, indicating that they were not happy with his speech.

After a brief interruption, Prime Minister said providing Rs 200,000 at once as per Nepali Congress's demand was not possible. The government has agreed to providing the amount in three installments, he maintained, that is the agreement.

READ ALSO:

Mentioning that there are understandings with international donors [on the distribution of money to the earthquake survivors], Prime Minister Oli said,  the government is bound to them.

"Government is ready to amend the work-procedure and directives," he said, "Let's resolve the issue instead of protracting it unnecessarily."

(Updated)

READ ALSO: