By IANS
Kathmandu : Nepal's parliament was disrupted again Monday as protesting MPs have blocked house proceedings for nearly a month, forcing Speaker Subhash Chandra Nembang to adjourn it till Wednesday.
Meanwhile, uncertainty about elections and the fate of King Gyanendra continues even as the rift among the ruling parties deepened.
For the eighth time on Monday, lawmakers from the Terai belt, cutting across party lines, did not allow the parliament to conduct any business.
The Terai MPs are demanding an autonomous state for the people of Indian origin in the plains, investigation into the unrest that has killed nearly 70 people and scrapping of a commission that has recommended more electoral constituencies.
The disruption was bolstered with the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, the second-largest party in the government, deciding to boycott Monday's session.
While parliament, restored after a democracy movement last year, remains paralysed, the ruling alliance has not announced fresh dates for the much-awaited election.
Even as Nepal is suffering from an acute shortage of petroleum products due to the Madhes movement in the Terai region, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has left for his hometown in Biratnagar in the plains for a three-day break.
Meanwhile, the security situation continues to deteriorate both in the capital and outside.
The Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha, an armed group of former Maoists, last week shot dead an engineer in the plains after abducting him. In the capital, motorcycle-borne assailants Sunday shot dead the owner of an overseas recruitment agency and injured his companion.