Kathmandu, August 29

Lawmakers of political parties today drew the attention of government towards the various atrocities taking place and urged it to act quickly with seriousness.

CPN-UMl lawmaker and Chairman of Development Committee Rabindra Adhikari today expressed doubt over the government’s ability to implement the new constitution by holding three levels of elections within the next 17 months, the deadline given by the new constitution.

Speaking at Special Hour of today’s meeting of the Legislature Parliament, Adhikari said, “The government has just 327 days to hold local, provincial and federal level elections. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said he would change gear after the cabinet gets complete shape.

However, since the vehicle of his government has already been trapped in the pit, it is unable to move ahead even after changing the gear.”

Nepali Congress President spoke of holding local polls as per the existing old structure and the new government announced holding polls by mid-April instead of by mid-December, which was announced by the previous government, he said, adding, “The polls should not be stopped under any pretext.”

Ongdi Sherpa of CPN-Maoist Centre drew the government’s attention to the need to upgrade road and electricity access to the people of Taplejung as people are suffering from lack of basic facilities in the absence of road and electricity there.

Duman Thapa Chhetri of CPN-UML suggested that the government set up a high level mechanism to check the capacity of vehicles and provide road permits accordingly.

“I had thought the government would take immediate and serious steps after the latest accident in Arghakhanchi that killed 11 people as the prime minister had expressed some serious opinion in his tweet.

However, nothing has been done yet,” he said.

Geeta Chhetri of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic expressed discontent with the abrupt and unnatural changes in the grammar and spellings in Nepali language. “If the haphazard changes are tocontinue, our offsprings will not be even read and understand our historic epics and religious texts. “The Ministry of Education should make immediate instruction to control this,” she said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of Development Committee Rabindra Adhikari tabled the annual report of the committee at the House. “Many instructions made by the committee were not implemented in the absence of good coordination between the government and the Parliament,” he said.

Meanwhile, today’s first meeting of the House passed a condolence proposal on the demise of Nepali Congress leader Balaram Karki, 83, of Okhaldhunga. He passed away on Friday.

He was a member in the first parliament formed after the political change of 1990.

Top leaders’ absence deplored

KATHMANDU: CPN-MC lawmaker Janak Raj Joshi drew the attention of the Speaker to the low presence of top leaders in the House meetings. “May be they are busy as they are top leaders. However, remaining absent for weeks is not good. Although their presence and participation in discussions could change the country’s course, their frequent absence has created problems,” Joshi said. The top leaders are speaking in various other forums ignoring the Parliament, he said, adding, “They should speak in the Parliament that makes their points valid and legitimate.”