Kathmandu, October 13

The process of implementing the constitution has not made any headway although stakeholders talk about prioritising its implementation.

Although the constitution envisages holding local polls for the interim period (till local bodies are restructured as per the constitution) the parties, however, missed this chance due to their inability to settle disputed issues on time.

“The constitution states that the Local Bodies Restructuring Commission will be formed within six months after promulgation of the statute, but the government formed the commission just before the deadline expired.

The government should not have waited for six months to form the commission,” said CPN-Maoist Centre lawmaker Ram Narayan Bidari.

Political parties were divided on whether to hold interim polls or to wait for polls after restructuring the local bodies, a factor that caused the government to miss the chance to hold interim polls, Bidari argued.

Two commissions Federal Commission (to suggest boundaries of provinces) and Constituency Delimitation Commission have not been formed yet.

Madhesi parties are objecting to the seven-province model and are demanding at least two provinces in the Tarai-Madhes.

Although the constitution has provisioned separate government services for the provincial and local levels, the government is yet to make the arrangements.

Article 47 of the constitution stipulates that all laws will be enacted within three years after the adoption of the constitution to implement all the 46 fundamental rights.

The government, however, has not brought a single bill in the Parliament relating to fundamental rights.

Many fundamental rights, including the right to labour, health, food, shelter, rights of children, Dalits and senior citizens, right to social security and consumers’ rights are new and they entail enactment of laws to implement them, said UML lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel.

“If the current stalemate on the question of boundaries continues to persist, that could create obstruction in holding the three types of elections local, provincial and parliamentary before January 21, 2018, as mentioned in the constitution.

This could result in the failure of the constitution. So, holding the three levels of elections within the given time and making arrangements for them is an issue of primary concern in the process of constitution implementation,” Pokharel argued.

Bidari said that citizens could feel the changes brought about by the constitution only after it was implemented.

People can not only get their citizenship certificates from local bodies, but these bodies also have powers to look into many issues, including land registration, sale and purchase of land and other properties, settlement of some disputes and cases including divorce and determination of the local taxation system, he said, adding, “People will feel the implementation of the new constitution only when they avail of these services at the local level”.

The Parliament also has to do many things to implement the constitution. It has not yet formed the impeachment recommendation committee and constitution implementation monitoring committee as mandated by the constitution.

Speaker Onsari Gharti said the parties were in consultation on the formation of these committees and she had begun her homework on these issues.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ajay Shankar Nayak said the government had registered some bills related to elections and constitutional commissions at the Parliament recently and was working on many other bills.

“I believe we will be able to accomplish all our tasks within the deadline given by the constitution.

Many bills will be taken to the Parliament after Dashain and Tihar as they are now in the final stage of drafting,” he said.