Regardless of which way the impeachment goes, it is good that the process is moving forward
In a major development, the House of Representatives has decided to proceed with the impeachment motion registered against Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana three weeks ago by forming an 11-member impeachment recommendation committee.
This has been feasible with the opposition party, the CPN (UML), which had been obstructing the House proceedings for almost six months, agreeing to send its lawmakers to the committee. As such, the UML has four lawmakers in the committee, the Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Centre two each, and one each from the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, Democratic Socialist Party-Nepal and CPN (Unified Socialist). The names were agreed by the parties during the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee that sat just before the full session of the House Sunday morning as scheduled. With the UML consenting to send four of its lawmakers to the committee, it could be indicating an end to the continued obstruction of the House proceedings so as to help pass some urgent bills.
The UML may have reluctantly joined the committee as the ruling parties have been mulling holding early elections for the federal parliament and the provincial assemblies or together with the local polls, scheduled for May 13, although this might not be feasible due to the weather and logistics. There has also been public outcry over the hold-up of, among others, the Citizenship Bill and the bill that will allow the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to bifurcate into two bodies – one to regulate services and the other to probe into air accidents. The latter bill is necessary for removing Nepal from the European Union's blacklist, which has barred Nepali airlines from entering European skies since 2013. The UML has been obstructing the House proceedings accusing Speaker Agni Sapkota of bias in not confirming the expulsion of 14 UML lawmakers, including Madhav Nepal, who are now members of a new party, the CPN (US).
The impeachment recommendation committee will now look into the 21-point allegations levelled against CJ Rana, who has been accused by lawmakers from the ruling Nepali Congress Party, CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-Unified Socialist of failing to maintain the sanctity of the Judiciary and seeking to share power with the executive in exchange for the verdict favouring the reinstatement of the dissolved HoR in July last year. The committee has three months to submit a report recommending the basis and reasons for impeaching the CJ or acquitting him of the charges. Should the committee recommend impeaching Rana, it must be passed by a two-thirds majority in the House, which the ruling parties cannot garner without the support of the UML that is opposed to the impeachment motion. This is not the first time an impeachment motion has been registered against a CJ. On April 30, 2017, the ruling parties - the Nepali Congress and the Maoist Centre - had done likewise against then CJ Sushila Karki. But an interim order by the Supreme Court had ordered the parliament not to proceed with the motion. Regardless of which way the impeachment motion against Rana goes, it is good that the process is finally moving forward, though belatedly.
Relief assistance
Six months after last year's monsoon-induced disaster displaced hundreds of families and left as many as 504 people dead, the federal government has now sanctioned a total of Rs 328.78 million in grants to 22 most affected districts for the reconstruction of private houses and relocation of those displaced by the floods or landslides to safer areas. As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, as many as 4,937 survivors from 22 districts will be entitled to the grant in line with the Monsoon-induced Disaster Affected Private Housing Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Grant Procedure-2021.
As landslides and floods leave many people dead and displace them from their ancestral homes every year, the government needs to come up with a longterm rehabilitation plan to mitigate the economic impact caused by the natural disasters. A permanent body, just like the one created to reconstruct the damaged private and public infrastructures following the 2015 earthquake, needs to be constituted to address the problem of disasters, such as landslides, floods, lightning, fires and inundation.The relief assistance should also be provided to the affected families shortly after such natural disasters.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 8, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
