Kathmandu, March 24

The winter session of the Parliament was prorogued today after passing a total of 16 bills, including two amendment bills, and scrapping some old laws that contradicted the new constitution.

The passage of some amendment bills also paved the way for the government to implement the constitution.  However, the winter session, which is also called the bills session, failed to pass some important bills such as Nepal Citizenship Bill, Peace and Security Bill, Federal Civil Servant Bill, Nepal Police and Provincial Bill, Provincial Public Commission Bill and Nepal Police Integration Bill. These bills may be passed only in the next session of the Parliament. The Parliament, however, has passed Civil Servant Adjustment Bill, which was previously brought by the government as ordinance.

According to Parliament Secretariat, during this session, the government has registered 30 bills. Of them, 16 bills were endorsed by the both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly. While 23 of the bills were registered at the HoR, seven were registered at the NA.  Addressing the last day of winter session of the Parliament today, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that this year had been a year of making laws. “We have enacted 126 laws, which is a big achievement for us,” he said.

The winter session of the Parliament began on December 26. The HoR held 46 meetings in 32 days during the session. Those meetings collectively lasted for 61 hours and five minutes. Likewise, the National Assembly held 35 meetings in 27 days. The meetings collectively lasted for 32 hours and 40 minutes.

During the session, the HoR held discussion on three important motions — increasing road accidents, negligence in health insurance and chhaupadi practice — and asked the government to take action on those issues. This session also witnessed direct question-answer sessions with the prime minister and ministers for the first time in parliamentary history since the country turned republic. Apart from PM Oli, direct question-answer sessions were held with eight other ministers.

During the winter session, the main opposition Nepali Congress requested the government to withdraw three bills — National Security Council Bill, Information and Technology Bill and Bill on Fast-Track Construction and Development of National Projects — from the Parliament. Today, 18 ministries, including the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of the Ministers, also furnished answers to queries of lawmakers.