RJP-Nepal urges government to publicly release Madhesh movement report

The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) on Monday urged the government to publicly release the report on the 2015 Madhesh movement.

The demand was made by RJP-N lawmaker Chanda Chaudhary during the Parliament session on Monday. The document was prepared under the leadership of former Justice Girish Chandra Lal.

"We have lodged protest several times and the government has not responded to our demands until now. Despite the House Speaker's ruling, the Lal Commission report has not been made public yet...what is the reason behind it or secret for keeping it within, the government should make it clear to us," Chanda Chaudhary, a lawmaker from the party demanded.

The party has been asking for the report to be released publicly for a while now. Even though Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had assured of the report's publication in a previous address, no such action has been taken yet.

The government which was formed after the political change of 2006 has never made any reports made by various commissions public. However, responding to the issue raised by disgruntled Madhesh-based party lawmakers, Nepal's House Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara claimed that the government has taken note of it.

"I am sure that the government has taken note of the issue. They will soon give a proper answer to it," Mahara said.

The report's public release has been a long-held RJP-N demand. The findings were submitted to the Nepal government in December 2017.

The probe committee was formed to investigate the incidents of killing, violence, destruction of properties, and arson during Madhesh agitation in 2015.

The final report submitted to the government had 709 pages. The commission's tenure was extended thrice after it faced difficulties in starting the probe.

Over 3,000 complaints were studied by the commission while putting the report together.

The Southern Plains of Nepal witnessed bloodshed and widespread protests with reports of human rights abuse, including the destruction of property worth millions during the 2015 agitations. The incident occurred after Nepal's constitution was promulgated around four years ago.