KATHMANDU, APRIL 8

Nepali Congress lawmaker Gagan Kumar Thapa accused Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli of citing wrong data related to development work and bragging about his government's performance.

Taking special time in the House of Representatives meeting today, Thapa said PM Oli should apologise for delaying the Melamchi drinking water project and stop claiming credit for completion of the project.

He said the feud between the PM and the line ministry led to a situation that forced the foreign contractor to flee from the country and construction work at Melamchi project could move ahead for nine months. He said the PM had pledged to complete the Melamchi Project two years before, but he could not ensure completion of the drinking water project.

Thapa said the PM had inaugurated 165 road projects from Kathmandu, but the government had neither completed the design work nor managed enough budget for the projects.

He said the PM had presented wrong figures to claim credit for development work. Thapa threw a challenge at the PM to take part in a debate in the House about what happened and what did not happen during his rule in the last three years.

CPN-MC lawmaker Devendra Paudel said if the government was trying to build a narrative that this Parliament was useless, then that was against democracy and democratic values.

He said the PM must seek a vote of confidence as the Supreme Court had nullified the unification of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

CPN-UML lawmaker Lalbabu Pandit, however, defended the government saying that there were 65 bills under consideration of the Parliament and the House could pass those bills. He said there were treaties and agreements awaiting parliamentary approval, but the HoR was not taking a call on them.

The citizenship Bill is stuck in the House and as a result 125,000 youths who qualify for Nepali citizenship have suffered for no fault of theirs, he added.

Stating that the HoR had not been able to play its role effectively, Pandit said the speaker had a special role to play to make the HoR proceedings effective.

UML lawmaker Mahesh Basnet also defended the government saying that the government was doing perfectly well by spurring development work and controlling corruption and hence there was no merit in those lawmakers who opposed the PM.

UML lawmaker Khagaraj Adhikari said even after nullification of the unification between the CPN-UML and CPN-MC, UML lawmakers were forced to take part in the parliamentary committee as NCP (NCP) lawmakers, and that was a violation of the constitution, prevalent laws and parliamentary regulations. A version of this article appears in the print on April 9, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.