budget session of house begins

By Ranju Kafle  Kathmandu, May 18: The budget session of the federal parliament began at the Parliament Building in New Baneshwor on Tuesday.

On the first day of the 11th session, the main opposition CPN-UML announced that it ended the obstruction of the both Houses of the Federal Parliament. 

The UML has been continuously obstructing the parliament since September 8 last year citing that Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota did not take action against 14 of its lawmakers who split the party. 

The UML obstructed the ninth and the 10th sessions of the House. 

Taking special time at the session today, party spokesperson and lawmaker Pradeep Kumar Gyawali announced that the CPN-UML ended the House obstruction.  

He said the party had ended the House obstruction but it would continuously raise its demands in a different way.  He cited two reasons for lifting the obstruction. 

“Although the court did not take any action, the people punished them properly, we move ahead accepting the people’s mandate, we continue to oppose the introduction of ordinance to split party and the role of the Speaker and the Court. 

But when the country has moved towards new course and we will continue our protest in different ways,” Gyawali said. He also cited the crisis facing by the national economy as another reason for lifting the obstruction. Gyawali said that the party decided to end the House obstruction as the country's economy was in a critical situation which required discussions in the parliament. 

Gyawali blamed the ruling coalition 

for not holding the local level elections in a fair manner. 

“We are ready for a healthy and dignified competition, even if we have to be weaker than we are now. We are ready to introspect. But power has been abused,” he said.  According to him, the UML would not allow the ruling coalition to meet its petty interests even after it ended the obstruction.

In the meeting today, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma presented a proposal of ‘Annual Appropriation Bill-2079 (Principle and Priority) (excluding tax proposals) seeking discussion in the full House.  According to the constitutional provision, there should be pre-budget discussion in the House before the government unveils its annual budget on May 29. 

The parliament secretariat has a tentative schedule of holding the pre-budget session just for two days (Wednesday and Thursday) this year because of time constraints.