Kathmandu, July 13: Nepal’s two-month-old CPN-UML government survived a scare when a vote in Parliament on its annual policies and programmes was approved by a wafer-thin majority in the 601-strong Assembly.
In the Constituent Assembly vote on Sunday, 305 members voted in favour of the government’s policies and programmes while 251 MPs, including Maoists, opposed them.
The government managed to get just four votes more than the required 301 for the endorsement of its policies by Parliament.
Apart from the Parliamentarians belonging to the Unified CPN-Maoist, a faction of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum voted against the annual policies of the government led by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Maoist MPs later walked out of Parliament, saying that there is no need for discussing the policies and programmes presented by an “unconstitutional” government.
Unveiling the new government’s policies and programmes, President Ram Baran Yadav had said on July 9 that “friendly and cordial relations with neighbours, particularly India and China, will be further strengthened on the basis of mutual respect, equality, cooperation and cordiality.”
He said the country’s foreign policy will be conducted based on the principles of UN Charter, Panchsheel and non-alignment besides keeping the national interest in mind.
–Agencies