Addressing the joint meeting of the National Assembly and the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament, President Ramchandra Paudel presented the government's policies and programs for the coming financial year on May 19. This has been discussed continuously since May 22.

The meeting of the House of Representatives has been going on throughout the day since 11 am to discuss policies and programs. But until the end of the meeting, neither the government minister sits down to listen to the discussion, nor the parliamentarian is interested in it. 

198 MPs attended Friday's meeting of the House of Representatives, 75 were absent. Even the MP who was present at the meeting left the House of Representatives before two o'clock, the chair was empty. After emergency time, zero time and special time, discussions on policies and programs began, in which 25 MPs participated. But in the middle of the meeting, the chair the MP was sitting on was empty. 

The seats in front of the House of Representatives where the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, senior ministers, top leaders of all parties sit were empty, MPs were also absent from the seats after that. When he saw that most of the women MPs were present when he expressed his views in the Parliament, Gangaram Choudhary, MP of Civil Liberation Party, demanded that women should be prioritized in policies and programs. 

210 MPs were present at the beginning of Thursday's meeting of the House of Representatives. 29 people participated in the discussion on policies and programs. But not even half of the 5 and a half hour meeting was over, the seat of the MP was empty.

Wednesday's meeting was the same. The number of MPs who attended Wednesday's meeting is 208, according to the House of Representatives Administration Division. 21 people participated in policy and program. At the end, when it was his turn to speak, Rita was only sitting on the chair. 

On the first day of the discussion on policies and programs, 52 MPs participated along with the amendment on Baisakh 22. When the meeting that lasted for more than 10 hours ended, it was already night and the chairs in the parliament were empty.

According to the constitutional provisions, every year on June 15, the government must present the budget for the next fiscal year. Before that, the work of presenting and passing the government's policies and programs, pre-budget discussion should be done by the parliament. But MPs are interested and do not participate in the discussion saying that these two issues will be limited only to completing the process. Although there is an arrangement for the presence of MPs when they participate in the meeting, the details of who was present are not kept until the end because there is no arrangement for attendance when they leave. 

UML's chief whip Mahesh Bertaula argues that the same thing happens in the parliamentary practice of the world. "The parliamentary practice of the world is to participate when your leader speaks, to be in the House when you speak, or to be in the Parliament premises but not to sit in the meeting room. A quarter is compulsory when any question or subject is presented for decision. Otherwise, the participation of MPs in listening to others is less, he said. 

Maoist MP Rekha Sharma says that discussion on policies and programs is just a waste of time. She said that MPs are not interested in speaking and listening because what MPs say has no meaning. "Policy and program has come to be ritualistic and traditional, there is no change in it even at full stop. We are just wasting time. Therefore, it is necessary to change the policy and program and the budget process,' she said. 

RSVP MP Sobita Gautam questioned the propriety of presenting policies and programs in the House and discussing them in the House. It was necessary to continue the practice of submitting policies and programs and discussing them at least 3 months before the presentation of the budget, which was done earlier. The pressured project lines, which are frequently recommended by the ministries, have been entered in the Ministry Budget Information System (LMBIS System). It has already been decided to allocate the budget without the country's policy," she said, "Discussions on policies and programs are a waste of time. Otherwise, what good amendment will be included in the policy and program?'

UML MP Chandra Bahadur Biswakarma remained silent on the rostrum as the policy and program were not satisfactory but had to be supported because the party led the government. Vishwakarma, who was given 5 minutes to speak in Friday's meeting, remained silent in his response. He spent 4 minutes standing on the rostrum without saying anything, saying, "I have come here to give feedback, so I want to give feedback."

Spokesperson Ekram Giri, who is also the head of the House of Representatives' Operations Division, said that the attendance of MPs in the discussion on policies and programs was good, but the number of people sitting till the end of the meeting was low.