Nepalese parliamentary session obstructed over new budget

Nepal's parliamentary session was obstructed on Monday after the main opposition party- Nepali (NC) lawmakers protested the leakage of the budget's contents including its size to the media before its unveiling on Saturday.

Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar postponed the sessions twice as lawmakers representing the NC protested the leakage of the budget contents by rising from their seats at the House.

Madhes-based lawmakers, who have been agitating in Nepal's southern plain against the new constitution, also joined the NC in protest.

Nepalese Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel on Saturday presented the budget of 1,048,920,000,000 Nepalese rupees (about 10 billion U.S. dollars) for the next fiscal year 2016-17 by hiking the planned expenditure significantly.

But, Nepalese media had covered the news on budget details before its presentation at the parliament.

Right after Speaker Gharti Magar began parliamentary session on Monday, the NC and Madhesi lawmakers rose from their seats in protest.

Then, NC lawmaker and former Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat demanded fair probe on leakage of budget information to the press.

"We will not allow parliamentary session to move ahead without launching probe on the issue," he said. He claimed that the leakage of information violated the 'privilege' of the parliament to know first about the budget.

On Sunday, the NC's parliamentary party meeting had sought resignation of Finance Minister Poudel on 'moral ground' for leakage of budget details.

The NC has also been protesting the size and contents over its alleged 'distributive nature' claiming that budget violated fiscal discipline and it could not be implemented.

The meeting had also decided to take strong position during deliberation in the House on the Financial Bill.

The budget has doubled the allowance being provided to elderly, widows and marginalized communities and also doubled grant being provided to the local governments which the NC has termed 'distributive.' There are concerns about utilization of the grants being provided to the local bodies as they are without elected representatives for the last 14 years.

But, Minister Poudel on Saturday defended the budget saying that the state could not run away from its responsibility towards senior citizens and other disadvantaged communities.

"The government is also against piling up resources in the center instead of distributing the resources at the local level," he said at a press meeting. Enditem