Provinces 1, 4 assemblies held

Biratnagar/Pokhara, February 5

The first meeting of assemblies of provinces 1 and 4 were held in Biratnagar and Pokhara today.

The senior-most member of Province 1 assembly Om Prakash Sarawagi chaired the meeting that decided to elect the speaker and deputy speaker on February 12. Bhim Acharya and Chandra Prasad Shrestha were among six members who spoke during the first meeting of the 93-member assembly.

The first meeting held in the building of District Coordination Committee, Morang, also passed the Provincial Assembly Interim Work Procedure and offered the post of secretary of the Provincial Secretariat to Joint Secretary of Nepal government Dhruba Ghimire.

The first meeting of Province 4 assembly was held in Pokhara today. The meeting lasted for one hour and 50 minutes and was chaired by the senior-most member Janak Lal Shrestha, who acted as the speaker. The meeting decided to elect the speaker and deputy speaker on February 15.

It also passed the Provincial Assembly Interim Work Procedure. The first meeting also formed five-member presidium to conduct the assembly in the absence of the speaker. Gayatri Gurung from CPN-Maoist Centre, Tek Bahadur Gharti Magar from Janamorcha, Dhana Maya Pokhrel Lama from Naya Shakti Party-Nepal, Man Kumari Gurung from Nepali Congress and Mitra Kumari Gurung Subedi from CPN-UML were elected presidium members.

As many as 11 PA members from five parties addressed the 60-member assembly.

Fifty-nine members attended the meeting, as Rajib Gurung alias Dipak Manange, who has been in hiding since the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in an attempt to murder case, was absent.