Lawmakers walked out of a meeting of the House of Representatives' State Affairs Committee in protest after journalists were barred from attending.
On Friday, journalists were not allowed to cover the meeting, which was scheduled to discuss issues identified during the monitoring of displaced squatters in Banepa with the Ministry of Infrastructure Development.
After journalists were denied entry, lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh from the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) boycotted the meeting and walked out.
Nepali Congress Chief Whip Nishkal Rai and CPN-UML lawmaker Mohammad Ishtiyaq Rai also left the meeting.
NC lawmaker Rai told the committee chairman, Hari Dhakal, that the meeting could not be conducted by barring the press and that they did not support the decision.
“We will not attend meetings held by keeping the press outside. If you are trying to run the parliamentary committee without keeping it open, then we do not support it. If meetings are to be conducted in this manner, we will not participate in the next meeting,” Rai said, quoting what he told Chairman Dhakal.
UML lawmaker Ishtiyaq Rai also said that he left the meeting because the press had been barred from attending.
