Kathmandu, April 28

The budget session of the Parliament will begin tomorrow at the International Convention Centre at 4:00 pm.

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara told a group of journalists today that if key leaders of political parties wanted to speak during the joint session of Parliament tomorrow, he would give them a chance for the same or else he would give them time on May 3 when the government would present its policies and programmes.

The Parliament will debate the government’s policies and programmes from May 3 to 12 and lawmakers will have a chance to question the concerned representative of the ruling party.

Mahara urged the main opposition party -- Nepali Congress -- to play the role of a constructive opposition in the Parliament.

He said passing of other bills would be on the back burner this budget session.

“I held talks with Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal lawmakers and they agreed not to stall House proceedings before the presentation of the budge over non-disclosure of the Girish Chandra Lal Commission report,” said Mahara.

NC Whip in the House of Representatives Pushpa Bhusal criticised the KP Sharma Oli-led government for undermining the Parliament by not allowing the House to hold pre-budget discussion before the presentation of the government’s policies and programmes.

“In the past, the government would formulate its policies and programmes on the basis of pre-budget discussion, but this government thinks it can pass anything in the House as it commands twothirds majority,” she said.

Bhusal added that the NC would adopt all kinds of pressure tactics in the House to force the government to comply with parliamentary norms and the constitution.

She said the speaker, who should have upheld parliamentary norms, was buckling under government pressure. “This government has shown autocratic tendency by centralising all powers in Singha Durbar and the Prime Minister’s Office,” she said. Bhusal added that her party would also take the government to task for its bid to curtail press freedom and its failure to control corruption and land grabbing.

Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna and Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal lawmaker Ram Sahay Yadav said their party’s lawmakers would raise the issue of constitution amendment.

Karna said his party would urge the government to make the Girish Chandra Lal Commission’s report public and seek withdrawal of false cases slapped against its leaders and cadres.

Yadav said his party would seek quick rehabilitation of tornado-hit residents of Bara and Parsa districts.

“We want the government to table the amendment bill in this session of Parliament to amend the constitution,” Yadav said.

Meanwhile, the Parliament Secretariat is all set to hold the budget session.

There are 46 bills in the Parliament for consideration; of the 46, 10 are being discussed by relevant panels.

Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Rojnath Pandey said the budget session might pass crucial bills related to the implementation of federalism.