Kathmandu, December 15, 2006

The government has given the green light to the agenda of distributing citizenship papers to all legitimate claimants as part of the preparedness for the election to the constituent assembly.

The government today approved the Regulation governing the Citizenship Act-2006 which has a new provision allowing distribution of citizenship certificates to all those who, among others, can produce evidence that they were born in Nepal.

The new provision replaces the one which considered geneological evidence as the ground to lay claim for the citizenship paper. “The passage of the Regulation has now cleared the deck for the distribution of citizenship papers to all legitimate claimants.

This is part of the preparation for election to constituent assembly,” Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies told The Himalayan Times today. This will also go along with compilation of the electoral rolls in the runup to the elections which have not yet been announced.

Under the spirit of the new Regulation, anyone who completes 18 years of age by December 15 will be entitled to cast a vote. This is a departure from tradition whereby electoral rolls were updated by mid April as and when the need arose.

Yet another decision is the government has passed the new national emblem which is a composition of hill, Terai and alpine region, with man and woman figuring in it too.

But the national anthem, written by Pradeep Kumar Rai “Byakul Maila”, has not been approved today following objections raised by certain ministers saying “the piece has drawn adverse reactions.”

The cabinet also approved the idea of having embassies in South Korea and Australia.

KMC Day observed

The Minister for Local Development, Rajendra Prasad Pandey, today said that the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) should strive to make Kathmandu on par with international cities.

Speaking at a function organised on the occasion of KMC Municipality Day, Pandey said waste management should be prioritised in KMC’s action plan. “We equally need local people’s participation for the sanitation drive,” he added.

According to him, maintenance of roads should be the next priority as the number of vehicles in the capital is rising. Bhagawati Kafle, secretary of the ministry, said the local government would be allowed to exercise full autonomy at the local level to execute its programmes.

Dinesh Thapaliya, KMC chief administrator, said the ‘Clean, Green and Prosperous’ Kathmandu motto has been the guiding vision of the KMC and it is working towards achieving this goal. “We are thinking of delegating more power and giving autonomy to ward offices for implementing plans at the local level,” he added.

He said the KMC would promote “proportional development programmes” instead of “equal development.”