NA members demand removal of time limit for rape cases

KATHMANDU: National Assembly (NA) members have drawn the attention of the House and the government to the country’s contemporary issues. Speaking at a special hour of the NA session today, Krishna Prasad Poudel of the Nepali Congress (NC) thanked the government for its role in holding the local level elections recently. CPN (UML)’s Bhairav Sundar Shrestha accused the government of promoting inflation by increasing the prices of petroleum products time and again in the past seven months. “People in the neighbouring country India get a government subsidy in fuel.” Similarly, Maya Prasad Sharma of CPN (Maoist Centre) informed the session that the common people were marred by a high market price. Even the election had become costlier, he said. As he said, though a one-year time limit for rape causes obstructions to dealing with rape case(s) before the time limit, the perpetrator(s) must be punished in this or that way. CPN (Unified Socialist) Jayanti Devi Rai apprised the session of rising incidences of violence against women including rape and demanded the guarantee of a safe space for women. She was of the opinion of revising the rape — to make crime punishable by law no matter what happened. Pramila Kumari, NA member of Janata Samajbadi Party, demanded life imprisonment for the guilty of rape. Likewise, NA independent member Khim Lal Devkota insisted on removing the time limit for heinous crimes like rape while Bhagawati Neupane of UML spoke about the need of removing the age limit for registering a case against rape. Dr Bimala Rai stressed the need of revising the law regarding rape as sooner as possible or bringing a new law with stringent provisions against the offence. Hariram Chaudhary of CPN MC accused the State of discriminating against Tharu community and demanded the withdrawal of cases filed against the Tharu people during different movements. Gopal Kumar Basnet of NC advised the government to follow a fair and transparent work performance Uday Bahadur Bohara of CPN (Unified Socialist) urged the government to address issues of people at grassroots level through its policies and programme, and the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2022/23. Sumitra BC of UML lamented over a limited space for women's candidacy by the alliance government in the May 13 local level elections. Jag Prasad Sharma of CPN MC demanded an end to inflation and corruption while Narayan Dutta Mishra of NC was of the view of promoting domestic products. READ ALSO:

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