DPM Shrestha also assured the problems of usury victims would be addressed
KATHMANDU, APRIL 18
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha today said the government would ensure that no eligible citizen was deprived of citizenship on any pretext.
Speaking at a press conference here today, DPM Shrestha said the government and his ministry were in favour of making citizenship certificates available to all eligible citizens in easy and expeditious manner.
"We know that people whose citizenship right has been guaranteed by constitution have been deprived of their citizenship rights as the citizenship bill was returned by the president (without the presidential seal)," he added. He said the government was committed to issuing citizenship to those people whose citizenship rights had been guaranteed by the constitution and the government would move ahead accordingly.
"Since citizenship issue is a sensitive one, we want national consensus on it. We want to discuss some issues over which parties hold divergent views," he said, adding that the government would take initiative to forge national consensus on citizenship issues. However, in the cases of those whose citizenship rights have been guaranteed by the constitution, they won't be deprived of their citizenship on any pretext," he added.
DPM Shrestha said the government would not allow any activities against the federal democratic republican constitution and the epochal political changes achieved as a result of people's war and the popular movement.
Describing the making of the new constitution through the elected Constituent Assembly as the first responsibility of political forces, Shrestha said defending the constitution and the political changes were the second responsibility the parities needed to shoulder. "We want to develop democracy and we cannot allow anybody to derail the current political changes," he added.
Speaking on the problems of usury victims who have gathered in Kathmandu to protest against the practice of usury, DPM Shrestha said the government would leave no stone unturned to end the current form of usury.
"Usury is a by-product of the feudal mindset and its existence in the 21st century is deplorable," DPM Shrestha said. He thanked the victims of usury who came to Kathmandu to protest and said that their protest had strengthened the government's resolve to end the practice of usury and give justice to victims. He said the government had taken a few steps to end usury and one of them was to amend the existing laws to criminalise usury. He said the government would form a commission to seek complaints from all usury victims, scrutinize their claims, and recommend punitive action to on the basis of which the government would take action against loan sharks.
The DPM also said the commission to be formed to address problems of usury victims would be different from other commissions as it would record the statement of victims and perpetrators, conduct public enquiry and gather evidence to determine how much money a particularly victim was defrauded of by the loan sharks.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 19, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
