Kathmandu, July 16 -- As the country continues to reel from floods and landslides that have left at least 70 dead, the House of Representatives meeting has been postponed by nine days following a dispute over who should address the House first.

The opposition parties, who registered a motion of public importance seeking a discussion on devastation triggered by a recent torrential downpour, demanded that they be allowed to table the motion first. The ruling party, however, asked that Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa be allowed to first inform the House about the ongoing crisis before initiating a discussion on the motion.

A meeting of the cross-party chief whips and whips, called by Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, remained log-jammed as b...