Nepal

Provincial Assembly meet obstructed over quarantine guideline

Provincial Assembly meet obstructed over quarantine guideline

By HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning of Sudurpaschim Province Jhapat Bahadur Bohora presenting budgets for fiscal 2020-21, at Province Assembly, in Dhangadhi, Kailali district, on Monday, June 15, 2020. Photo: RSS

DHANGADI, JUNE 26 Opposition lawmakers in Sudurpaschim Province obstructed the Provincial Assembly meeting today over a COVID quarantine guideline. The PA was to start a discussion on the provincial budget from today. But, that couldn’t happen after the PA members representing Nepali Congress and Rastriya Prajatantra Party stood up from their seats to protest quarantine guideline. No sooner had Speaker Arjun Bahadur Thapa called the meeting to order; opposition PA members stood from their seats in silence and refused to sit down. Upon being granted time to voice their grievance, NC parliamentary party leader Rana Bahadur Rawal condemned the government directives for COVID-19 infected persons to stay at home. “It’s the height of irresponsibility on part of the government to simply tell virus-infected persons to stay at home, and we need an answer,” he said, also asking the government to make public the details of 570 million spent in handling the health crisis at hand. A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 27, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.