'Bills' session with not many bills

(Updated with list of bills in pipeline 1751 NST 1206 GMT)

Only two bills registered so far, 11 in the process to come

KATHMANDU, March 28: The winter session of the parliament is likely to be without much work since the government has registered only two bills for discussions so far. The session is set to begin Sunday. [break]

"Only Electricity Bill and Nepal Electricity Regulation Commission Bill have been registered so far as the new bills," a parliament secretariat official told myrepublica.com Friday evening.

The winter session regarded generally as "bills session" will be without agenda if the flow of the bills the government has registered in the secretariat is any indication, the official said.

The parliament has four bills – registered in the previous session – up for discussion. Bill for controlling domestic violence, bill on safety of medicos and health institutions, bill for consolidation of republic, and scholarship bill are under parliament´s Legislation Committee´s purview.

The government has also registered two ordinances for parliament´s approval. Ordinances issued for making public services inclusive and bill on disappearance have already been received by the parliament secretariat. Both the ordinances have faced widespread criticism.

In order to avoid an agenda-less parliament, the secretariat had written to Ministry of Law, Justice and Constituent Assembly Affairs to provide the bills within 15 days. "Fifteen days have passed but we have not received any bills except a few," said the secretariat´s spokesperson Mukunda Sharma. "The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Friday has sent a list of 13 bills it is going to table in the coming session." He said two of them have already been registered.

A cabinet meeting early this week decided to introduce a separate bill to replace the Ordinance for Making Public Services Inclusive by incorporating the points of agreements it signed with Tharu, Muslim and other communities.

The government will have to table a bill to amend the Interim Constitution to address demand of the Tharu community. The word ´Madhes´ used in the constitution is to be replaced by ´Tarai-Madhes´ as demanded by the Tharus.