KATHMANDU, Aug 2: A cabinet meeting on Wednesday formed a three-member committee to recommend a new date for holding the Constituent Assembly (CA) election after negotiations between the political parties.
The three-member body is led by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar while Tourism Minister Posta Bahadur Bogati and Minister for Land Reform Chandra Dev Joshi are its members.[break]
The Election Commission (EC) earlier this week had said that holding CA election on November 22 was not possible without forging consensus among major political parties and necessary amendments to the Interim Constitution and election-related laws.
"The government will set a new date after the three-member committee will offer suggestions based on talks with the major political parties," Minister for Information and Communications Raj Kishor Yadav told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
With the political parties failing to reach consensus on contentious issues in constitution writing that led to the demise of CA on May 28, the government had announced fresh polls for November 22. However, the opposition parties refused to cooperate with the government accusing the prime minister of announcing the poll date unilaterally and in contravention with the constitution and election-related laws.
The meeting also decided to recommend to the president to promote second-in-command of the Nepal Army (NA) Gaurav Shamsher Rana to the post of Acting NA chief of army staff (CoAS) with effect from August 10 as CoAS Chhatra Man Singh Gurung will take leave from the same day before retirement.
Also, the cabinet accepted resignations of five secretaries, who put in papers expressing dissatisfaction with the government decision to promote Secretary Leelamani Paudyal to the post of chief secretary earlier this week.
Similarly, the government also relieved Rameshwarman Shrestha from the post of chairman at the Bharatpur Cancer Hospital and appointed Bhaktaman Shrestha as the new chairman.