The government has decided to withdraw the Citizenship Act (Amendment) Bill from the parliament and register a new one in its place so as to endorse it through a fast-track process. It's been almost seven years since the new constitution was passed by the Constituent Assembly, but the federal parliament has yet to enact new laws to enforce Article 11 (3) of the constitution, which stipulates that children of citizens by birth shall obtain citizenship by descent. In accordance with the new constitutional provisions, any law contradicting the new constitution should have been amended within three years of its promulgation.

The bill has been under discussion in the House of Representatives for more than two years, but it has failed to be endorsed due to differences among the parties over certain provisions, namely the seven-year waiting period for obtaining naturalised citizenship for foreign women married to Nepali men. The ruling parties seem to favour the present laws, under which a woman married to a Nepali citizen is entitled to immediate naturalised citizenship.

In May last year, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, on the recommendation of the government, had issued an ordinance to amend the Nepali Citizenship Act, allowing children of parents who had received Nepali citizenship before September 20, 2015 to be issued citizenship by descent, which provides certain political rights and privileges not accorded to naturalised citizens. Also children born out of Nepali mothers were entitled to nationality by descent if the father could not be traced and were living here. However, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the Citizenship Act Amendment Ordinance, observing that issuing an ordinance to accrue political benefits by evading the Parliament could lead to a situation where its powers were unnecessarily infringed upon. Since the citizenship ordinance was issued just a day after the HoR was dissolved, it was pretty plain that a beleaguered Oli was seeking support of the Madhes-based Janata Samajbadi Party to stay afloat.

Just like Oli, the decision of the government to withdraw the citizenship bill is prompted by the exigency to secure support of the Madhes-based parties and the Madhesi people during the upcoming general elections in November. Inability to solve the decades-old citizenship problem is pushing more and more people into statelessness each year. According to the Home Ministry, 190,726 individuals had acquired Nepali Citizenship Certificates by birth before the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015. An estimated 500,000 children from these citizens by birth should be eligible for citizenship by descent as per the constitutional provision. Similarly, another 680,533 children born to Nepali mothers whose fathers' whereabouts are not known are also eligible for citizenship by descent. So in the absence of a citizenship act in accordance with the constitutional provisions, more than a million people remain stateless in the country. Without citizenship papers, they cannot get a job, travel or carry out personal business, such as opening a bank account or purchasing land in Nepal, which is gross injustice to them.

Fatal accident

At least 13 people were killed and as many as 20 others sustained injuries, some of them seriously, when a bus carrying 33 passengers skidded off the road and fell some 300 metres at Beldanda in Ramechhap district on Tuesday. The ill-fated bus was heading towards Kathmandu from Hiledevi at Suapati.

Four of the 20 injured were airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment. Although the local police suspect overspeeding caused the fatal accident, the driver said the accident occurred due to brake failure.

Road accidents, especially during the rainy season in the rural parts of the country, are quite common in Nepal, where on average 2,500 people get killed and thousands of others sustain injuries every year. The traffic police always blame the poor condition of the rural roads and drivers' carelessness for the frequent fatal road accidents. Those who survive the accidents do not get compensation either from the government or the insurance companies as they are not insured for short distance travel. If the drivers themselves are well-trained and careful while driving, majority of the road accidents could be averted. Looking at the growing rate of accidents, an insurance policy must be introduced even on short routes.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 7, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.