The Development Committee issued the directives after holding a meeting with Chief Information Commissioner Krishna Hari Banskota, other commissioners, senior leaders of major political parties, including Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist), Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) and Right to Information (RTI) experts on Thursday.Chief Information Commissioner of National Information Commission (NIC) Krishna Hari Banskota at the meeting had urged political party leaders to make an arrangement for publicizing details of their respective parties every three months, appointing information officer, establishing Information Section and publicizing revenue and expenditures of their party on an annual basis.
Among other things, Banskota also urged political parties to maintain a website that is updated on a regular basis. The meeting chaired by Development Committee Chairman Rabindra Adhikari was attended by various political party leaders, including UML's Secretary Yogesh Dhakal, NC's Chief Secretary Rishikesh Tiwari, Tarai Madhes Democratic Party Jitendra Sonal, RPP's Kiran Giri, Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic leader Dr Subodh Kumar Pokharel had spoken at the meeting. Although leaders maintained that maintain transparency in party activities was necessary, some of them argued that it was practically difficult to implement all transparency measures as some parties are still in their transformative stage.
Following the discussion, the Development Committee drew the attention of all political parties toward implementing the provision of Right to Information Act, 2008. The committee also drew the attention of the political parties to get their income and expenditure properly audited, appoint information officer, set up information section and publicize their information on a regular basis.
Related story
Women in leadership maintain transparency, good governance: Fin...
