Kathmandu: Rejecting the practice of making laws from the parliament, the government has started preparations to run the country through an ordinance. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is also going to continue the practice of the KP Oli-led government to bring the ordinance by deceiving the parliament.
Instead of making laws from the parliament, Oli ended the session and dissolved the parliament. The Deuba-led government has ended the second session of the House of Representatives reconstituted by the Supreme Court in 30 days. The main task of the parliament is to make necessary laws for the country. Not a single law has been enacted in a year, but Rs. 320 million has been spent on MPs' salaries during this period.
There are 55 bills under consideration in the parliament. According to the Parliament Secretariat, no law has been made by the House of Representatives since July 30, 2008. The last time President Bidyadevi Bhandari ratified five bills including the budget was on June 30. The bill originating from the National Assembly has last ratified on 13 July 2077 BS. Since then, no bill has been ratified.
Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota informed that the first sitting of the eighth session of the House of Representatives started on Sunday and continued for 30 days till Monday. The decision to dissolve the House of Representatives was overturned by the Supreme Court on July 12.
Speaker Sapkota said that a total of 20 hours and 15 minutes were spent in the parliamentary proceedings after holding 10 meetings in nine days. Announcing the progress in Monday's meeting, he said, "The current session of the House of Representatives will end automatically from 12 noon on Monday."
Monday's cabinet meeting recommended ending the parliamentary session to the president's office. The parliamentarians were surprised when the speaker started reading the letter sent by the President's Office to end the parliamentary session.
"We also met the speaker and told him that there was a need for business in the parliament. He had informed the government on Monday morning that the government was positive on the issue," said UML chief whip Vishal Bhattarai. The government is led by the party that first protested that it was made businessless. They couldn't even give business. ' Speaker Sapkota also urged the Prime Minister and Ministers to move the bill forward.
Congress Whip Pushpa Bhusal said that she was suddenly informed about the end of the parliamentary session. "We were informed of the end of the session only during the sitting of the parliament. It remains to be asked why it ended," she said.
A Congress leader claimed that the parliamentary session may have ended to issue an ordinance that would make it easier for UML's Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jaspa's Mahanta Thakur to form another party. "At present, there should be at least 40 percent MPs to split the party. Now, the parliamentary session has ended to issue an ordinance to reach 25 percent MPs or central members," the leader said.
The government had tabled 15 ordinances in the parliament. The ordinance was not even accepted. As the Parliament session is over, it will be active only if the government issues the ordinance again. In Article 114 of the Constitution, if the Parliament does not accept it, it is considered inactive. "All 15 ordinances and some more are being issued by the government," said a minister.
No new bill was registered in the current session of the House of Representatives. The seven bills that originated and passed in the National Assembly came to the House of Representatives. Although passed by the National Assembly, there was no theoretical discussion in the House of Representatives.
The process of making laws has been blocked due to the inactivity of the House of Representatives. Speaker Sapkota has been saying that he has not got business despite repeated requests to the government. UML lawmakers say the speaker is more concerned about the government's failure than the government's.
Speaker Sapkota had informed the parliament that the House of Representatives had received 37 bills in different stages from the previous session. Out of this, the prison bill has been submitted to the assembly by the concerned committee.
In this session, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba took a vote of confidence from the Parliament. The session ended with the parliamentarians speaking in zero and special hours, passing the condolence motion, and submitting the report of the Constitutional Commission. Speaker Sapkota informed that 182 parliamentarians spoke in zero time and 58 in special time.
