With the CA endorsement of their leave, the members have become entitled to salaries, perks and all other facilities provided by the CA secretariat. [break]
The party leaders who remained absent include Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, former prime ministers Girija Prasad Koirala, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and UCPN (Maoist) Vice-Chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai.
CA Chairman Subas Nembang tabled the proposal to endorse leave at the meeting Thursday and it was duly endorsed by the meeting.
According to the proposal read out by Nembang, Koirala was absent from June 5, 2008 to August 16, 2009, Dahal was absent from July 23, 2008 to August 16, 2009, Deuba from January 14, 2009 to September 6, 2009, Khanal from April 16, 2009 to August 16, 2009, Nepal from June 8, 2009 to December 14, 2009 and Bhattarai from October 23, 2008 to June 2, 2009 and from October 27, 2009 to November 16, 2009.
According to the Interim Constitution, if any CA member fails to attend 10 or more consecutive meetings of the CA, he/she looses membership of the 601-member body.
Other members whose leave was endorsed by the CA meeting include Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Bishnu Paudel, Shyam Sundar Gupta, Prakash Sharan Mahat, Rajendra Mahato, Surendra Pandey, Bijay Gachchhadar, Binod Chaudhary, Bishwanath Agrawal, Amik Sherchan, Amrita Thapa Magar, Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, Dal Bahadur Rana and Allauddin Ansari.
Most of the members have cited the common ´special reason´ for their inability to attend the meetings. Amrita Thapa Magar was on maternity leave.
This is the second time that the CA has endorsed leave for its members retroactively.
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