Kathmandu, October 4, 2006

The Parliamentary State Affairs Committee (SAC) is preparing to hold discussions on some important Bills, including the Citizenship Bill 2063 immediately after dashain.

“We will hold discussions on some important Bills including the Citizenship Bill immediately after the Parliament Secretariat opens after Dashain,” said the SAC secretary Mukuda Sharma.

Though certain sections of people have been opposing the idea of passing the Citizenship Bill before the promulgation of the proposed Interim Constitution, the government and the House are doing preparations to bring it as soon as possible.

Though the regular business of the House will be held again on October 11, the House committees are likely to resume their discussion before that date. Some lawmakers have opposed the government’s idea of tabling the Bill without scrapping Article 8 and 9 of the 1990 Constitution.

Stating that the citizenship problem will be sorted out only by amending the existing provisions, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula had tabled the Citizenship Bill 2063. The Bill tabled in the House of Representative has provisions of issuing citizenship certificates in the name of mother and other easy ways.

Tabling the Bill on September 28, Sitaula had sought clause-wise discussion on it.

The Minister for Physical Planning and Construction Gopal Man Shrestha had recently tabled the Drinking Water Management Board Bill 2063, Drinking Water Price Determination Commission Formation Bill 2063 and Health Service Bill 2063.

Cleaner brick technology introduced

Brick kiln owners have introduced vertical shaft brick kiln (VSBK) technology in eastern Jhapa and Morang districts from this week.

Jhapa VSBK Industry in Jhapa district, Susweta VSBK Industry and Abhi & Sabhi VSBK Industry in Morang have started production.

According to Suyesh Prajapati, an engineer of VSBK programme, Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries in their respective districts coordinated in organising workshops on VSBK technology to inform the entrepreneurs about the technology.

“VSBK consumes 40 per cent less energy (coal) and emits 30 per cent less pollutant than the fixed chimney brick technology. Thus, it is highly beneficial for

the owners as well as helpful in fighting environmental hazards to the country” said Prajapati, who has been providing technical guidelines to the kiln owners for the last three years.

Janardan Neupane, owner of Jhapa VSBK, said: “I decided to adopt this technology, as it is cost-effective as well as environment-friendly.”

The VSBK programme of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is providing the owners with technical assistance. The technology was introduced in 2003 under the cooperation of SDC.