Kathmandu, March 19

Shashikala Dahal, vice-chairperson of the National Assembly, today chaired the meeting of the Upper House of Parliament for the first time. This was possible after necessary amendment was made to the National Assembly regulation as per the provision in the constitution.

In the past, the chairperson had to be present to conduct Upper House meetings.

The new provision in the National Assembly regulation states, “If the chairperson has given a written direction or the chairperson is unable to attend a meeting due to unforeseen circumstances, the vice-chairperson can start and postpone meetings. The vice-chairperson can also postpone meetings opened by the chairperson.” This provision was added as per the constitutional provision to allow vice-chairs to handle Upper House proceedings.

Today, Dahal opened, manoeuvred and ended the meeting in the absence of chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsena, who was in Hetauda to attend an event. In the past, the vice-chair was only allowed to steer the meeting opened by the chairperson, who also had to be present to end the meeting.

“It feels great to have received this responsibility after a year in office. This shows vice-chairpersons also have the ability to handle daily proceedings of the Upper House,” Dahal told The Himalayan Times after the meeting.

Dahal had chaired today’s meeting after receiving a letter from Chairperson Timilsena yesterday. Timilsena had also asked Dahal to proceed with today’s meeting over phone.

The meeting chaired by Dahal forwarded the Land Use Bill and the National Sports Development Bill to the concerned National Assembly committees for clause-wise discussion and accepted Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Bill forwarded by the House of Representatives.

She has scheduled the next meeting of the Upper House for Friday.

With the empowerment of the vice-chair of the National Assembly, plans are afoot to make the deputy of the Upper House a member of the Constitutional Council by amending the constitution.