Kathmandu, August 17

Fifty-eight lawmakers of the Parliament have registered 22 amendments to the Nepal Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and most of them have sought removal of the provision in the bill that requires mothers to name fathers of their children.

Some lawmakers have sought incorporation of provisions in the bill that will remove the requirement for foreign women married to Nepali men to submit evidence of renunciation of their citizenship within six months. Other lawmakers have, however, proposed that the six-month period be changed to one year.

The 72-hour deadline for registering amendments to the bill ended today.

Lawmakers Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, Ganesh Pahadi, Indu Kumari Sharma, Tulsi Thapa and Dila Sangroula have registered amendments seeking one year for foreign women married to Nepali men to submit evidence of renunciation of their citizenship.

Lawmakers Gagan Thapa and Laxman Lal Karna, on the other hand, registered amendment stating that it should be left on the foreigner married to a Nepali man when to show evidence of renouncement of her citizenship. Thapa said National Citizenship Archive should be created to check citizenship fraud. “If any foreign woman married to a Nepali man gives false details, then such a mechanism can be activated to take action against her,” he added.

Karna also said it was unnecessary to have a timeframe for submitting evidence of renouncement of citizenship. “Affidavit of foreigners married to Nepali men stating that they are no longer citizens of their birth country should be enough ground for Nepali authorities to grant them naturalised citizenship on grounds of their marriage to Nepali men,” he added.

Lawmakers Sujata Pariyar and Asha Kumar BK said Dalits should be allowed to change their surnames because some Dalit members feared discrimination and did not want to mention their surnames. “Some Dalits fear that if they are required to write their original surnames they will be looked down in society,” she added.

Lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel said he sought incorporation of a provision that could allow distribution of non-resident Nepali cards to people from Nepali diplomatic missions and district administration offices.