The suspended lawmakers are Biswendra Paswan, Buddha Ratna Manandhar, Saddrul Miya Haque and Rukmini Chaudhary.[break]
The speaker resorted to the extreme measure after the four lawmakers stopped Minister for Local Development Urmila Aryal from heading toward the rostrum to respond to concerns raised by lawmakers at the previous meeting.
No sooner had Aryal headed toward the rostrum than the four lawmakers encircled her shouting slogans. Nembang urged them not to obstruct the minister and to take their seats. But, they refused to pay heed. The speaker then read out the names of all the four lawmakers and ordered the marshals to eject them out of the parliament building with due respect. The marshals made a human chain to encircle the lawmakers and took them out of the parliament building.
Nembang suspended them in accordance with Clause 46 of the parliamentary regulation that mandates the speaker to suspend any lawmaker violating discipline or causing trouble in the House meeting or being involved in destructive activities inside the parliament building. The speaker can also issue on-the-spot order to use force to eject such lawmakers out of the parliament building and suspend them for 10 days at the most.
The four lawmakers from the fringe political parties obstructed the parliamentary proceeding even as the prime minister had committed in writing to address their concerns. They have been hindering parliamentary as well as constitution making procedures accusing the major political parties of being reluctant to incorporate the issues of dalits and the marginalized communities.
Their obstruction at the meeting was unexpected as the prime minister on behalf of the government had earlier in the afternoon made a four-point written commitment to addressing their concerns.
It is for the first time that any lawmaker has been suspended for violating discipline during a House meeting after the country was declared a republic in 2008. Three other lawmakers -- DB Karki, BP Yadav and Gayatri Sah -- have also remained suspended for the last few months after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed corruption cases against them.
The four are the same who threw a chair from the window at the fourth floor of parliament secretariat building, tore down CC Chairman Nilamber Acharya’s documents and obstructed parliament proceedings for many days.
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