Himalayan Times (1952)

Six

V

Tfiimalnit.in tf im .ft

July 13, 1952

NEPAL ADVISORY
ASSEMBLY

Kathmandu, July 4
Indian-educated, 37
year-old Krishna Prasad
Upadhyaya, of the ruling
party, the Nepali Congress
was yesterday elected
speaker of the Advisory
Assembly by 40 votes to
fourteen. He defeated the
well-known Nepali Poet,
Luxmi Prasad Devkota,
"ifhowas set up by the Par-
liamentary Opposition of
theAll-Nepal Congress Pro-
gressive Bloc and dissidents
in the Nepali National
Congress. Members are
nominated to the 61 strong
assembly in an individual
capacity but are mostly
w«wq from some political
party or, other.

Fiftyfour of 55 mem-
bers who have beon sworn
in so far voted.

Mr. Govind Narayan
Adviser-cum-Seeretary to
King Tribhuvan, acted as
returning officer. He ruled
out the Nepali Congress
contention that voting
should not be by ballot.
Besides other, he said the
very fact of the appoint
ment of a returning officer
suggested secret voting.

The opposition was
understood to have repre.
sented in writing to the
Returning Officer when
voting was in progress, that
the result of election should
not be declared till
it was establish that Mr.

Nepali Mahila Sangh
Visits Gaur
Bairgania, July 4
Two mombers of the
Nepali Mahila Sangh visited
Gaur the other day to
propagate their viewpoints
regarding an all round
development of Nepali
women. They have decided
to move the Government
to meet their following
demands :—

(1) Nepali women should
be given equal right and
equal opportunity.

(2) Women should be
included in the Cabinet
and appointed to Govern-
ment posts.

(3) Industrial schools to
impart compulsory educa-
tion should be opened for
women.

(4) The Government
should declare child.mar-
riage, poligamy, daliej and
tilak illegal.

(5) Child welfare centres
should be opened and lady
doctors should be appoin-
ted in the hospitals

(6) Girl schools should
be opened in every dis-
trict.

K. P. Upadhyaya was
Nepalese citizen which the
opposition doubted. I he
acting speaker ruled that
representation would be
forwarded to the King to
whom it was addressed,
but the acting speaker had
no power to withhold the
election result.

GOVT. POLICY CRITICISED
Kathmandu, July 0

Members of the ruling
party, Nepali Congress
criticised the policy of the
Governmet set out in the
King’s address when the
Advisory Assembly began
today its three day debate
on the motion of thanks
to the speech from the
throne.

1'he Prime Minister
M. P. Koirala moved the
the vote of thanks which
was seconded by the
Finance Minister Subarna
Shamsher

Critics of the address-
all from the ruling
party — maintained that
Government policy set
forth in the address was
‘most vague’ but they said
they would vote for the
motion of thanks.

Six members of the
Parliamentary Opposition
Party, led by Mr. Rishikesh
Shah walked out when the
Assembly started' its pro
ceediug as a protest against
the inordinate delay in
taking a decision of their
representation to the King
that Mr. Krishna Prasad
Upadhyaya could not hold
the post of speaker as he
is not a Nepali citizen.
A spokesman of the op-
position party Baid there
representation had not beon
acknowledged and they did
not know whether it had
reached the King.

(Continued on page 8)