Kathmandu, June 10
Various lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties have demanded the withdrawal of the proposed guthi bill.
As soon as the House meeting started on Tuesday, lawmakers from the Nepali Congress stood up in protest of police intervention against a peaceful demonstration on Sunday.
Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara gave time to NC Chief Whip Bal Krishna Khand to put forth his party’s views. Khand said that the right to peaceful protest as per the constitution had been attacked.
Ruling party Nepal Communist Party (NCP)’s Pampha Bhusal condemned the use of police force in the peaceful agitation held in the Maitighar Mandala Sunday. She demanded the government withdraw the bill and bring a new one in its place.
Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Padma Kumari Aryal, however, defended the bill reasoning that the plan to transform guthis into an authority model was to make systematise related provisions in the constitutions and for uniformity of guthis.
“The new bill does not intend to destroy religious and cultural norms and values. Its sole aim is just to address the constitutional provisions and implement the constitution. But we are willing to revise it,’ added Aryal.
