Nepal

Bills stuck in Cabinet

Bills stuck in Cabinet

By Himalayan News Service

Minister of Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa holding a meeting with UNHCR Representative in Nepal Bushra Halepota in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, on Thursday. Photo: RSS

Kathmandu, July 5 Even as just over two months remain for the Parliament to endorse more than 100 bills related to constitution implementation, eight of the bills have been stuck in the Cabinet while the Parliament is out of business. According to House of Representatives Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has informed him the eight bills would be forwarded to the House very soon. “We are following up on the issue,” Mahara told journalists in his office at Singha Durbar today.  As per the constitutional provision, the bills related to fundamental rights should be endorsed by the Parliament by September 18. Meanwhile, a 17-member Parliamentary Business Committee was formed yesterday with the speaker, deputy speaker and law minister being its ex-officio members. According to Mahara, the committee will discuss relevant bills. “We have been asking parties to immediately forward the names of their lawmakers to be represented in other committees, but the main opposition Nepali Congress has not sent the names yet. I will  follow-up on this tomorrow,” Mahara said, adding that RastriyaJanata Party-Nepal had not sent the names. “The 15-member Parliamentary Hearing Committee will be formed tomorrow after we receive a formal letter from the RJP-N,” he said. Mahara said the Parliament could not wait for longer for the NC to submit names. “Even I can announce the names, but I do not think that will be an ideal thing to do,” he said, adding that parliamentary panels were needed for clause-wise discussion on the bills. He said members of fringe parties could not join more than one parliamentary panel as per the law. “The constitution does not identify small parties. So they will not be represented in all parliamentary panels,” he said.