Kathmandu, September 15

The government today tabled a new bill in Parliament on reconstruction of earthquake affected structures to operate the reconstruction authority after a bill already registered in Parliament to replace a related ordinance could not meet the constitutional deadline.

Minister for Law, Justice, Constituent Assembly and Parliamentary Affairs Narahari Acharya tabled the bill at the House. Lawmakers urged the House to change some provisions.

Unified CPN-Maoist lawmaker Ram Narayan Bidari raised a point of order claiming that one-fourth members of Parliament must be present to conduct the session. Since there were only 87 lawmakers in the House, Speaker Subas Nembang postponed the meeting till 2:00pm Wednesday. The new bill registered has changed some provisions in the ordinance.

The authority will have three layers — Consultative Committee headed by the prime minister; Steering Committee headed by PM and two ministers designated by the PM; and Executive Committee headed by the Chief Executive Officer, as per the provisions proposed in the bill.

The government had issued an ordinance on June 22 and registered the replacement bill on August 1.

However, the replacement bill could not be endorsed within 60 days after the ongoing parliament session began as provisioned in the Interim Constitution on article 88 (2)(c).