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Kathmandu Saturday August 19, 2000 Bhadra 03, 2057.
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Eighteenth House session concludes
PM defends govt as others flay the session as unproductive
By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, Aug 18 - The eighteenth session of
the Parliament, which had been going on since three months ended today hastily with the
opposition calling the session unfruitful and the Prime Minister defending it as being
"productive" while naming some of the approved Bills and the decision to
liberate Kamaiyas.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala giving
his concluding speech today said that the budget session had been productive as it had
started one month ahead than the earlier years also because the Kamaiyas (Bonded Labours)
were liberated and freed from debts and the much-awaited Human Rights Commission was
formed during the session.
"The government made the landmark
decision to liberate Kamaiyas from the bonds and it is at the moment engaged in settling
the recently freed Kamaiyas," said Koirala.
Koirala called the approval of the
controversial Bill brought to make sixth amendment to the Nepal Citizenship Act-1963 as
"another major achievement" of the session. The Bill first one to be adopted by
the current session of the Parliament was sent back by the Upper House without suggestions
and had to be again passed by the Lower House.
Though the Prime Minister insisted that the
Bill would make the law to issue citizenship more stringent, legal experts claim that the
law is more prone to extensive manipulations that is more likely to open floodgates for
the foreign citizens to be legal citizens of Nepal.
Leader of the main opposition Madhav Kumar
Nepal called the session ineffective and said that the Prime Minister’s assertion
about the achievements of the session were unjustified. "There is no way we can be
satisfied with the achievements that the prime minister has proclaimed," said Nepal.
"The government just announced that the Kamaiyas were liberated without making the
preparations for their rehabilitation and how their lives could be shaped."
Nepal said that the Parliament and the people
had suffered from the intra-party conflict within the ruling Nepali Congress. "Nepali
Congress, which repeatedly asked for votes telling the people that it would give stability
has become the party that gives way to all the instabilities," said Nepal. "We
have seen two governments within not even a year, and soon might see a third
government."
He held NC responsible for the delays caused
in passing of Bills like the Kamaiya Emancipation Bill and the Bill that grants Equal
Rights to Parental Property to Women.
Nepal castigated the government for failing
to take action against the person behind the death of musician Praveen Gurung. He,
however, refrained from taking Prince Paras Shah’s name as the person was driving the
speeding Pajero with the number plate Ba.3.Cha 692, that hit Gurung’s motorcycle near
the eastern gate of the Royal Palace.
Gurung was hit by a Pajero that Prince Paras
Shah was driving last Sunday who later died in the hospital. According to our sources, an
army junior officer Khadag Bahadur Bhujel, 30, has been framed as the driver of the
vehicle that hit musician Gurung.
Leelamani Pokharel of United People’s
Front also flayed the government and the ruling NC for its intra-party strife, "which
has caused the delay of six months to pass even the most important Bills."
Chitra Bahadur KC of National People’s
Front chided the government for being unable to intitiate dialogue with the Maoist
insurgents.
Surya Bahadur Thapa, the Rastriya Prajatantra
Party chairman and MP said that the NC has not been able to live upto the purpose the
people had entrusted them with.
A letter received from the Royal Palace to
formally end the session was read out by Speaker Taranath Ranabhat at the House of
Representatives today. Ranabhat said that the House of Representatives met 74 times during
the 64 days the house convened.
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