Kathmandu, Jan. 12 : Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources Bishwanath Sapkota and executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority Vishnu Bam Malla, at the meeting today of the House of Representative Finance Committee chaired by committee chairman Smriti Narayan Chaudhari, furnished information on matters pertaining to implementation of earlier decisions of the committee regarding terms and conditions and provisions of the power purchase agreements with the Khimti, Indravati and Upper Modi hydropower projects.

The meeting decided to give directives to the Ministry of Water Resources and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to take initiative to sign agreements in the interest of the NEA after studying the actual cost of hydropower projects such as Khimti, Indravati and Upper Modi and reviewing the terms and conditions including methods of payment.

Likewise, at the meeting of the House of Representatives Development Committee held today under the chairmanship of committee chairman Tanka Prasad Rai, National Planning Commission (NPC) member Jagadish Chandra Pokharel and secretary at the Ministry of Works and Physical Planning Hiranya Lal Regmi furnished detailed information on the policy pursued by HMG to regulate the roads for the next 20 years considering the pressure of vehicles in the Kathmandu Valley at present.

NPC member Pokharel and secretary Regmi gave detailed information on the progress made hitherto towards developing Kanti Rajpath as an emergency access road and national policy and standards concerning road construction.

The meeting today of the House of Representatives Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Committee presided over by committee chairman Mahendra Yadav decided to extend hearty thanks to all concerned including DDCs and district administration offices for their cooperation to teams deputed in 14 districts to hold interactions and collect opinions concerning matters relating to women’s right to inheritance as mentioned in the Civil Code (eleventh amendment) Bill now under consideration in parliament.

Looking forward to further cooperation in accomplishing the remaining tasks in this connection, the committee decided to extended hearty thanks to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and the main streamlining project for gender equality.

A five-member sub-committee comprising committee members Gehendra Giri, Nara Bahadur Hamal, Rajendra Kharel and Ramnath Adhikari with Prem Bahadur Singh as convenor has been constituted to make full preparations concerning interaction programmes and opinion collection in Kathmandu.

At the meeting of the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee held today under the chairmanship of committee chairman Subash Nembang, secretary at the Ministry of Finance and the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank said that as the financial situation of Nepal Bank Limited and Rastriya Banijya Bank was delicately, a process of contracting out the management of the two banks had been pursued and the approval of both banks was also sought in this regard. The secretary and the governor had been invited to the committee to furnish information regarding the awarding of the management contracts for the two banks.

MPs Bharat Mohan Adhiari, Dilli Raj Khanal, Gangadhar Lamsal and Rabindra Nath Sharma, who were invited for discussions on the matter, said that the process initiated by Nepal Rastra Bank was in contravention of the provisions of the law and was not transparent.

It was then decided to request Nepal Rastra Bank to furnish the committee by 3 Magh 2057 all particulars and the basis for all the decisions and processes in this regard.