KATHMANDU, June 28: Following House obstruction for the fourth consecutive day, the ruling and main opposition parties have formed a seven-member task force on Monday to find out possible meeting points for ending the impasse.
A meeting between Prime Minister KP Oli, leaders from his party CPN-UML, the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC), CPN (Maoist Center) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) decided to form a task force to discuss demand put forward by the NC.
Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Chinkaji Shrestha and Prakash Sharan Mahat from NC, Bhim Rawal and Subas Nembang from UML, Krishna Bahadur Mahara from Maoist Center and Dilnath Giri from RPP-N are the members of the task force.
The first meeting of the task force on Monday afternoon discussed the possible meeting points between NC's demands and the government's stance. The NC has been demanding the lump sum release of house reconstruction grant of Rs 200,000 to the quake victims.
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But the government has cited the agreement reached with the World Bank on releasing the grant assistance in installments after monitoring the rebuilding efforts.
According to the UML leaders, the agreement with the World Bank had been signed during the previous government led by the NC.
“It is already too late as the grant amount has not been released even 14 months after the quake. If government wishes to release the amount in lump sum, the agreement with World Bank will not prevent it from doing so,” said NC leader Prakash Saram Mahat.
The next meeting of the taskforce has been scheduled for Tuesday morning. After the task force meeting, the top leaders of major political parties will hold discussion on the conclusions put forward by it.
“Going against an agreement with the World Bank would alienate the donors' fraternity, so we hope the NC will agree to release of grant amount in installments,” said RPP-N Chief Whip Dilnath Giri.
An NC leader said that an agreement with the government on releasing the grant amount in two installments is likely on Tuesday.
After the NC obstructed the parliament meeting on Monday, leaders from ruling and opposition sat for talks deferring the parliament for Tuesday.
