NATIONAL7Spotlight Weekly)]

Lackluster

Eighteenth session of the parliament concludes without making any major breakthrough

By KESHAB POUDEL

As soon as the Speaker of House of Representatives Taranath Ranbhat walked along with Rajdanda on Saturday, 18th August, the 18th session of the Parliament was finally over. During its 64-days-long session, the House had met for 47 times.

The 18th session of parliament did witness some remarkable episodes. For the first time in the last ten years, membership of one of the sitting member was canceled after the court order and replaced by another. RPP member Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani replaced UML member Rajendra Prakash Lohani as the MP from the constituency no 1 of Nuwakot district.

In another incident, the Human Rights and Foreign Affairs Committee asked Indian government to dismantle the Laxmanpur barrage built in Indian territory following the inundation resulting from it on Nepalese land.

MPs at House of Representatives : Obsessed by personal consideration

Earlier the House of Representatives passed the Bill to Amend Citizenship Act 1963 unanimously but was rejected by the Upper House. Later, the Lower House re-passed the bill and sent it for Royal Seal.

For Nepali Congress, the session did not have a happy ending as Minister for Water Resources, Work and Physical Planning was sacked triggering a widespread dissension in the ruling party. The same session also saw the ouster of Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation Mohammad Aftab Alam following his alleged involvement in an abduction case.

Even for the main opposition party UML, the session was not any more happier as it lost one of its member following the decision of election court which declared Dr. Prakash Chandra Lohani elected.

Although the UML halted the parliament session for several days on different issues, they were not able to push their agenda. "We have been successful in the last session of the parliament," said main opposition party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal.

As usual the 18th session of the parliament has nothing to boast about after three month long business. None of the members of the main opposition party CPN-UML and ruling Nepali Congress party succeeded to make an impact and give new leadership.

"The last session of the parliament was successful in terms of achievements," said Speaker Taranath Ranabhat. "In the democratic process, last session added another milestone." He was indicating to the unprecedented show of consensus among the MPs cutting across partylines in defending the democracy.

All MPs had castigated anti-democratic elements after a furor was raised following a public statement by an artist called Mohan Niraula who said he was willing to shoot the Prime Minister for failing to solve country's problems. Following the pressure from lawmakers, the government was even forced to arrest Niraula.

Similar show of consensus was witnessed during the recent episode surrounding Prince Paras Shah. Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties asked for legal action against Shah for his alleged involvement in the jeep accident that killed a musician Praveen Gurung.

For the MPs the announcement of increment in their salary and other benefits came as happy news. The government also increased the MPs discretionary constituency development budget from Rs. 500,000 to 1 million rupees.

The 18th session's most important job may be the passing of the budget for the fiscal year 2000/2001. It, however, paid little concern to passing other bills. It passed about 14 bills including the controversial Party Registration and Citizenship Act Amendment.

The House of Representatives still has many bills pending including the three corruption related bills, Civil Code Amendments bill and Parliament Secretariat bill. These bills could not be entertained during the 18th session.