Lumbini State Assembly passes 67 bills in four years

BUTWAL: FEB. 1 – The Lumbini State Assembly has passed 67 bills in four years of its establishment. A total of 74 bills were registered in the Assembly, according to State Assembly secretariat.

Similarly, among the bills registered in the Assembly, two are under consideration in the thematic committees and one in the secretariat. One bill was sent back from the Assembly and three others from the thematic committees.

The State Assembly has not got regular business due to the influence of the tussle in national politics and continuous obstruction of parliament after the formation of a coalition government. It resulted in lack of political consensus and registration of new bill in the Assembly. The State Assembly has not met since the ninth session.

After the formation of the coalition government, only two bills including one on implementation of financial proposal of province government was passed by the Lumbini State Assembly.

So, most of the bills were registered and certified during the tenure of Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel. “Now, the major opposition has been continuously obstructing the Assembly meeting. But, State Assembly meeting is held with Rastriya Janamorcha lawmakers in opposition,” said secretary at Lumbini State Assembly, Durlav Kumar Pun Magar.

He argued that it was wrong to say that bills were not introduced due to obstruction of Assembly meeting. The Assembly is functioning, he added. There are 37 lawmakers of CPN UML, 19 each of Nepali Congress, and CPN (Maoist Centre), four of JSP, one each of CPN (Unified Socialist), and Rastriya Janamorcha and one independent lawmaker.

Information Officer at Lumbini State Assembly secretariat, Dinesh Adhikari, said only two bills were passed lately and political imbalance had direct bearing on the State Assembly. The State Assembly is marking its establishment day on Feb 4 by organizing various programmes.

-RSS