i wonder where are true republic and socalled democracy advocates around the world?

Govt decision to give Rs 1 million to MPs to be challenged in court

The government’s decision to provide Rs 1 million to each member of the Interim Legislature Parliament for constituency development has drawn flak from legal experts.

According to Shambhu Thapa, former president of Nepal Bar Association, the ‘unconstitutional’ decision to give Rs 1 million to MPs is being challenged at the Supreme Court very soon. Along with the government, he said, the interim parliament itself and its 330 members would be made defendants in the writ petition.

“The interim parliament has been acting against the spirit of the interim constitution,” Thapa said while speaking at the Reporters Club Tuesday.

“The MPs even insisted that they will fail the upcoming supplementary budget in the parliament if they are not provided with Rs 1 million. This is blackmailing.”

The former NBA chief also accused the MPs of trying to scuttle the constituent assembly elections on one pretext or the other, because most of them fear defeat. “Since 80 percent of the existing MPs are not going to be elected thanks to the inclusive model of the election they want the elections suspended again.”

Former Supreme Court justice and coordinator of the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee, Laxman Aryal, also described the decision to allocate Rs 1 million to MPs as unconstitutional.

“Since this is clearly an unconstitutional decision those challenging it in the court will easily come out victorious,” he added.

While the legal eagles were disclosing their plan to challenge the government’s decision in the court, two MPs present at the interaction defended the decision saying the MPs would not be using the money at will and that it would go to development projects in the districts.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Minendra Rijal said that since the budget would be spent through the District Development Committee (DDC) it would be helpful in addressing the development needs at the local level.

Similarly, Maoist lawmaker Khim Lal Devkota said there was nothing wrong with the government decision, as the budget programme had already announced Rs 1 MPs to constituency development fund managed by individual parliamentarians. nepalnews.com mk Jan 15 08