HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Govt to simplify citizenship procedures for bonafide Nepalese
Khadka stresses consensus to tackle issue

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Aug. 6: Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka today informed the House of Representatives that the government, following the right procedures, would provide citizenship certificates, within one month, to those people whose citizenship papers were revoked by the Supreme Court citing procedural mistakes while issuing them.

The Supreme Court two weeks ago had ordered to repeal about 30,000 citizenship certificates issued in 20 districts of Terai by the Citizenship Distribution Team in 2053 B. S. as per the recommendations of different task force formed at different times to solve the problem of citizenship certificate in the country.

Making a statement of public importance in the House of Representatives, Minister Khadka said that the government would initiate for an all-party consensus in the near future to solve the problem of citizenship certificates.

He said that the government has always been conscious that Nepalese citizens would not face hurdles in obtaining the citizenship and those ineligible should not get citizen papers.

"In fact, the problem of citizenship certificate is directly related to the nationality," Khadka said, adding, "The actual Nepali citizens would in no way be deprived of getting citizenship certificates."

He further said that His Majesty the Government has been continuously active to provide citizenship certificates to the real Nepalese through an easy and simplified procedure following the restoration of democracy in the country.

In the course of solving the problem, the government had formed a High Level Citizenship Commission under the chairmanship of the then lawmaker Dhanpati Upadhyaya in 2051 B.S. The Commission was given the mandate to study and analyze the nature, cause and result of the citizenship problems, and to submit a report with recommendations containing future policies and steps that should be taken to solve the problems.

In 2052 B. S., the cabinet decided to implement its recommendations that included issuing citizenship certificates in a quick and easy way, give new surname, change names and castes in the citizenship certificates for the facility of pension of those working abroad.

The report had also proposed to investigate cases and rectify, if there are any, the types of citizenship received by the people and provide citizenship through right procedures.

Then the government constituted a Citizenship Commission Recommendation Implementation Committee headed by MP Mahantha Thakur to implement recommendations presented by the Dhanpati Commission and to submit further recommendations if they are not mentioned in the previous Commission. Some of the recommendations have already been implemented.

Likewise, the government went on to form one-member Citizenship Certificates Monitoring and Work Evaluation Committee under the chairmanship of Jitendra Dev in 2053 B.S. to counsel the government in implementing both the reports and to evaluate and monitor the distribution of citizenship in a simplified and convenient manner.

Under the direction of this Committee, citizenship distribution teams were deputed in the 20 districts of Terai. However, during this period a writ was filed at the Supreme Court claiming the formation of such a Committee was against the law and also that the issuance of citizenship papers was illegal. The Court, then, issued an interim order to stop the activities of the Committee in 2054 B. S.

At today’s parliamentary session, the Nepal Sadhvabana Party MPs applauded the Home Minister’s statement to issue, within one month, the certificates to those whose certificates were nullified. The Party had boycotted the meeting of the House of Representatives twice protesting the decision of the Supreme Court.

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