Activities of the House to be systematised

Kathmandu, November 15

A meeting of Speaker Onsari Gharti, chief whips of major political parties, chairpersons of parliamentary committees and authorities of the Legislature-Parliament Secretariat today decided to systematise the activities of the House.

The meeting also decided to begin the question-answer session with the prime minister and ministers once a month.

The meeting decided to give top priority to concluding works on election bills and other bills related to implementation of the new constitution, said assistant spokesperson of the Legislature Parliament Secretariat Sudarshan Kuinkel.

There are 33 bills, including three election-related ones under consideration in the Parliament and most of them are now in the concerned House committees for discussion.

As lack of proper coordination while arranging committee meetings and full House meetings is creating problem in the performance of committees, the meeting decided to hold committee meetings before 1:00pm and full House meetings after 1:00pm under normal conditions, according to Speaker Gharti’s spokesperson Babin Sharma.

The Parliament Secretariat has prepared a proposal after holding consultations with the chief whips of parties to begin the question-answer session with the prime minister, ministers and lawmakers in the House meetings, said UML Chief Whip Bhanubhakta Dhakal.

The question-answer session with the PM will be held on the second Sunday of the month and with ministers on the second Wednesday and Friday every month according to the proposal, said Dhakal.

Lawmakers can ask questions to the PM and ministers regarding government functioning during the sessions and the PM and ministers will have to reply in the House.

Speaker Gharti inquired with the committee chairpersons about overlap of the works of different committees, such as when more than one committee take up the same issue and summon the same authorities on the same issue, according to assistant spokesperson Kuinkel.

In response, the chairpersons stated that they were careful about one committee not encroaching the purview of another.

Also, the meeting decided to form a committee represented by the chief whips and chairpersons of the House panels for distributing proportional budget to the committees to manage field trips and other expenses, according to Kuinkel.

The committee will also look into the jurisdiction of the House committees to control overlapping of work, he said.