KATHMANDU, JULY 12

Lawmaker Bamdev Gautam drew the attention of the government to the fact that the posts of deputy speaker and vice-chair were lying vacant in the Parliament, saying this was a matter of concern.

Airing his view at a special session of the National Assembly today, Gautam said, "It is a matter of shame that the posts of deputy-speaker in the House of Representatives and the post of vice-chair of the National Assembly are lying vacant. The NA has been functioning without a deputy-chair for the past four months while the post in the lower house has been lying vacant for four years.

"The appointment will be made promptly if the post was ensured for a male without requiring gender representation," he said sarcastically.

He took time to say that though the constitution had sought women's participation in every state apparatus, the provision has not been implemented by the House itself and it is high time women lawmakers pressed the Parliament to implement the constitution.

The constitution has clearly stated that appointments in the State organs or bodies shall be made on the basis of inclusive principle, he added.

Meanwhile, putting forth his views at the session, Jitendra Narayan Dev said the government's economic policy had painted the real economic picture of the nation. Being based on the same policy, Nepal Rastra Bank's statistics unveiled yesterday suggested positive economic indication.

According to him, Nepal is not heading towards the fate of Sri Lanka as rumoured outside and Nepal's economic policy could hold the economy on the right track. "Sri Lanka's unprecedented crisis was due to wrong economic policy, mass corruption, dominance of a family in the ruling system and economic mismanagement."

He was of the view that discussions among economists and political parties should be held to determine the standards for accepting foreign loan. "The nature of foreign debt and assistance whether it is BRI, MCC and other loans and its necessity for the nation should be assessed first and the decision should not be made to please any country or neighbour. " Similarly, lawmaker Bimala Rai Poudel drew the government's attention to the need to bring a policy to mobilise the country's population from 15 to 65 years in the interest of the nation.

Saying that the Health and Population Ministry had not been able to accord priority to the issues of Nepal's population, Rai opined that it was necessary to make a separate ministry naming it Human Resources Planning.

She mentioned, "Nepal's human resources is very important. Now there is a large youth population in Nepal. It is very good that Nepal has a large population between 15 and 65 years of age."

A version of this article appears in the print on July 13, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.