House panel to grill PM

REPUBLICA, Jan 17: The Natural Resources and Means Committee of parliament on Tuesday decided to grill Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai about the illegal operation of stone quarries in Lalitpur despite directives from the parliamentary committee to stop illegal stone extraction.



Previously, the parliamentary committee had twice issued instructions to the government in this regard. [break]



The committee also decided to seek clarification from forest ministry, finance ministry, home ministry and local development ministry over their failure to implement the directives.



On August 6 last year, the Supreme Court (SC) had also directed the government to stop the illegal extraction of sand and stones in Lalitpur citing the detrimental effects it would have on sources of water in nearby settlements.

Related story

The secrets of the grill