KATHMANDU, MAY 28

CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal challenged CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli to become prime minister on the strength of his own party.

Speaking at the House of Representatives, Dahal said Oli had become PM twice in the past with his party's help, not on his own party's strength. He said he expected Oli to realise his mistakes after his party's defeat in the National Assembly and local elections, but Oli remained arrogant.

He said he could collaborate with other UML leaders, but not with Oli.

He told Oli not to undermine the contribution of people's war.

'We can call Oli a killer. Did he not serve time in jail for murder? But we won't say that,' he added.

He said Oli had dissolved the HoR due to intra-party disputes.

Unlike the federal and provincial governments where the parliamentary form is practised, the local governments have presidential form of government. 'We need to change this provision in the constitution,' he added.

Commenting on the victory of independent candidates in Kathmandu and Dharan, Dahal said those two candidates had served a lesson to political parties to reform, but they did not pose any challenge to the parties. Independent candidates' win in Kathmandu and Dharan is like blooming of flowers in the federal republican order,' he commented.

Dahal said the government had rightly focused on ways to achieve the goals of import replacement, export promotion, increase in production, focus on energy and tourism, but the government must reduce inflation or else, households feeling the heat of commodity prices may revolt.

CPN-Maoist Chief Whip Dev Prasad Gurung wondered whether Nepal was aligning with the US, which was inclined towards world war. He said Nepal was tilting towards India and acting against one China policy by encouraging the activities of US diplomats in Nepal. He said US authorities' meeting with Tibetan refugees in Nepal was wrong. He also flayed the government for not implementing agreements reached with China.

Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal Chair Upendra Yadav urged the government to pass the citizenship bill immediately as lakhs of children of citizens by birth were being rendered stateless due to non-enactment of a new federal citizenship law, which Yadav said had hindered provincial governments from appointing civil servants and police personnel.

Yet, the federal government had shifted the blame on the provincial government for poor implementation of federalism.

Yadav also said there were efforts to dilute the proportional representation of marginalised groups and communities.

Socialist Party Nepal lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna said his party's lawmaker Chanda Chaudhary was beaten with sticks and attacked with knives when she visited Matihani on the day of election.

CPN-UML leader Bishnu Prasad Paudel said the coalition was formed after the KP Sharma Oli government was dislodged through a conspiracy. This government has caused loss to Nepal's international prestige, he added. He said the government's policies and programmes did not offer any solution to the current economic problems. He said the economy was facing risks and the government had to pay attention to remove thm. He said the country imported goods worth 16 billion rupees in the last 10 months, but exported goods worth only one billion rupees.

Thapa said Nepal's expenditure was growing and income was shrinking. Even foreign assistance and remittance was decreasing.

Karna said citizenship bill should be brought immediately to grant citizenship to eligible citizens who have not been able to enjoy their rights in the absence of a new citizenship law. He said almost 90 per cent of administrative chiefs of local governments owned houses in Kathmandu.

There are numerous accusations of irregularity in local governments and unless administrative chiefs get signals from the local government chiefs, they cannot take decisions, he said and added that the constitution should be amended to start parliamentary form of government at the local level.

The government is bringing a new fiscal budget tomorrow.

A version of this article appears in the print on May 29, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.