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Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota urged the lawmakers to compulsorily wear masks after the main opposition CPN-UML drew the attention of the government towards the increasing cases of Covid-19.

In view of the increasing cases of Covid-19, Speaker Sapkota, during a meeting of the House of Representatives, urged the lawmakers to wear masks.

“You all know that the Covid-19 cases have been increasing day by day. That is why, I would like to request you all to wear masks while attending the meeting of the Parliament,” he said. Most of the lawmakers were not wearing the masks.

Speaking at the meeting, UML lawmaker Yogesh Bhattari drew the attention of the government saying that it is not serious towards monkeypox, cholera and Covid-19.

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, Nepal has not made any preparations to stop the disease from entering the country.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday suspended four protesting Congress members for the remainder of the monsoon session, amid continuing disruptions in Parliament proceedings by the Opposition on issues of high inflation and GST (goods and services tax) on household essentials. The Lower House was then adjourned till Tuesday, Hindustan Times reported.

The MPs who stormed the well of the House holding placards were suspended under Rule 374(2) “for serious note of misconduct in utter disregard of the House and the authority of the Chair...”, according to the resolution for their suspension.

The suspended parliamentarians are Manickam Tagore, TN Prathapan, S Jothimani and Ramya Haridas. Prathapan and Haridas are from Kerala and the other two lawmakers belong to Tamil Nadu. 

“People want Parliament to function,” Birla said on Monday, appealing for order in the House. This was the first time that members were suspended in the current session. The suspension lapses at the end of the session but the four lawmakers named by the Speaker can individually appeal to him to lessen the duration.

“The government is ready to discuss issues raised by the Opposition,” Birla said. If members wanted to protest with placards, they could do so outside the House, he said. Parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi requested Birla to disqualify the MPs who trooped into the well and were holding placards inside the House, according to Hindustan Times.

The Opposition, led by Congress and Trinamool Congress members, demonstrated inside the Lok Sabha, leading to an adjournment till 3pm after the lunch recess. Parliament proceedings have been continuously disrupted since the monsoon session began on July 18. Opposition MPs shouted slogans and marched to the well of the House with placards.Tagore moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha to discuss the imposition of 5% goods and services tax on items of daily use such as pre-packed and labelled food grains, curd, butter and milk, among others.

“For the past six days, we have been giving notices to adjourn the House and discuss fuel price rise and GST. We want Parliament to function and discuss price rise. But the government has refused to discuss the issues so far. We were forced to show placards as Sansad TV doesn’t show us when we protest. Whenever we raise issues, Sansad TV only shows the ruling benches,” Tagore told reporters. 

Officials pointed out that it is not the first time that parliamentarians have been suspended from the House in this Lok Sabha. “The last case of suspension took place on April 5, 2020 when a total of seven Opposition MPs were temporarily suspended from the Lok Sabha,” an official said, Hindustan Times reported.

The probe committee formed to investigate alleged entry of two unauthorized persons in the Finance Ministry on May 28, a day before the budget was presented in the Parliament, has begun studying the report of the hard disk of CCTV.

The committee started the study by opening the seal of the hard disk obtained from the forensic lab of the Nepal Police on Tuesday.

The investigation committee sent the hard disk to the forensic lab of the Nepal Police after it could not get the video of the day when former Finance Minister Janardan Sharma allegedly allowed two outsiders to enter the ministry to tweak tax rates on the eve of the budget presentation.

The committee received the hard disk, sent to the forensic lab of the Nepal Police on July 20, on Monday.

“Only the required process has been completed, there is nothing in the report,” a member of the committee said. Though there is a video of the CCTV of the Finance Ministry in the report sent by the forensic lab of the Nepal Police, the time has not been revealed, the member said.

The Annapurna Post, sister publication of The Annapurna Express, in its June 13 edition published a story claiming that Sharma had allowed two unauthorized persons in the ministry to make last-moment changes in the tax rates.

According to a provision, the finance minister cannot even keep his advisor while changing the tax rates.

But, the former finance minister directed the officials of the Finance Ministry to follow suggestions of two outsiders—a retired senior non-gazetted officer and a chartered accountant—on the night of May 28 to change tax rates to favour some businessmen.

After The Annapurna Post made the news public, lawmakers in the Parliament demanded the resignation of Sharma. They also demanded that they be allowed to see the CCTV footage immediately. But the finance minister had been turning a blind eye to the demand.

Saying that it was a matter of public concern, Secretary Jaya Prasad Paudel on behalf of the Consumers Rights Conservation Forum on June 28 had demanded information from the Ministry.

Paudel had demanded that the Ministry provide a copy of the budget which was replaced by the finance ministry brought by the erstwhile government through the ordinance and the footage of the night that the two unauthorized persons were allowed to the ministry to change tax rates.

In response, the Finance Ministry said that the CCTV footage has been deleted.

“The CCTV footage got deleted as the storage could keep records of only 13 days,” read a letter signed by non-gazetted officer Dhan Kumar Rai.

The committee had sought CCTV footage of south and east gates of singhadurbar of May 28 and 29 with the Home Ministry to see whether any unauthorized persons entered the building.

On June 12, the panel had demanded to extend the deadline after it could not gather evidence within the given 10 days.

As per the request, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota tabled a proposal in the Parliament meeting on Thursday to extend the deadline by seven days. The Parliament endorsed the proposal unanimously.

The committee had started the work on June 12.

Four democracy activists have been executed by Myanmar's military in what is believed to be the first use of capital punishment in decades, BBC reported.

The four - including activist Ko Jimmy and lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw - were accused of committing "terror acts". 

They were sentenced to death in a closed-door trial that rights groups criticised as being unjust.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was very sad after hearing the news, a source told the BBC's Burmese Service.

Ms Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, did not make any comments, the source added. She was arrested in February 2021, following an army-led coup.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the executions in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. 

"Such reprehensible acts of violence and repression cannot be tolerated. We remain committed to the people of Burma and their efforts to restore Burma's path to democracy," he tweeted.

Family members of the deceased gathered at Insein prison on Monday desperate for information on their loved ones, according to BBC.

The mother of Zayar Thaw says she was not told when exactly her son would be executed, adding that she was unable to make proper traditional funeral plans as a result. 

"When we met on Zoom last Friday, my son was healthy and smiling. He asked me to send his reading glasses, dictionary and some money to use in prison, so I brought those things to the prison today," Khin Win May told the BBC's Burmese Service. "That's why I didn't think they would kill him. I didn't believe it."

Meanwhile, the sister of Ko Jimmy - whose real name is Kyaw Min Yu - had earlier said they were yet to receive the bodies. 

The families have all submitted applications for information on the executions.

State news outlet Global News Light of Myanmar said the four men were executed because they "gave directives, made arrangements and committed conspiracies for brutal and inhumane terror acts".

It said they had been charged under the counter terrorism laws, but did not say when or how they were executed. 

The executions are the first since 1988, according to the United Nations. Previous executions in Myanmar have been by hanging.

In 2021, the country's military seized power, an event which triggered widespread demonstrations, prompting a military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, activists and journalists, BBC reported.