RJP-N ends House obstruction

Kathmandu, March 18

The government promised to reveal the Girish Chandra Lal-led probe commission’s report as soon as possible today appealing to the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal, which recently withdrew its support to the government, to end obstruction of proceedings in the House of Representatives.

Yet again, the RJP-N obstructed the meeting of House which started at 2:00 pm. After the obstruction, Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara postponed the House for 10 minutes.

Though, the meeting was held after three hours to enable ministers to convince the RJP-N leaders to allow the House meeting to proceed. Talking to THT, RJP-N leader and lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna said Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal convince RJP-N leaders that the government was serious about the issue. Quoting the minister, Karna also said the government had received direction from the Speaker too in this regard.

“The government asked us to help in passing the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Bill before the Nepal Investment Summit slated for March 29 and 30,” he said. Karna said if the government did not come out with the Lal Commission report in the next meeting of House, the party would decide on further action.

The Lal-led commission ad submitted its report to the government on 15 December 2017, after probing incidents of human rights violation and the violence during Madhes and Tharuhat movements in 2015 and 2016. Despite repeated demands from the RJP-N, the government did not made the report public.

During the meeting, Speaker Mahara said the government was serious about the demand of lawmakers. He also said the government was busy studying the report. “After completing its study, the government will reveal the report,” he said. However, talking to journalists on the premises of the Parliament, Deputy-Prime Minister Ishwor Pokharel said the government would come out with the report after studying it.

The speaker had, on March 13, issued a ruling to the government to make the Lal Commission report public as soon as possible, after the RJP-N obstructed House proceedings, However, the government has not came out with the report yet.

The government had formed the commission on 18 September 2016 to investigate killings and violent incidents that took place during protests in the Tarai. The commission had begun its investigation on October 17.

The probe commission had prepared the report after visiting the incident sites and holding interactions with witnesses, victims’ families and rights activists. The commission had also held interactions with the intelligentsia in Tikapur, Janakpur, Rajbiraj and Biratnagar.