Citizenship Bill pulled out in absence of unanimous stand: Government

KATHMANDU: The government has said that it decided to withdraw the Citizenship Bill as it aimed to forge a consensus unanimously on the citizenship-like sensitive issue.

Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Dilendra Prasad Badu, said this while talking to media in brief in a session of the House of Representatives (HoR) today. As he said, the July 5 meeting of the Council of Ministers decided to take back the Bill.

“The government’s understanding is that any decision based on majority-minority provisions over the citizenship-like sensitive issues would not be in the collective interests and more political discussions are necessary to deal with it unanimously,” he said.

According to him, decisions in regard to different aspects of citizenship in the past failed to find acceptance from all quarters. Primarily there are some issues in regard to citizenship on the basis of marital status. “The issue is also connected with the civic rights and it should be dealt with unanimously and without any disputes at the top political level.”

“Amendment proposals have been received over some issues of the Bill,” he said, adding that prior to this Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand and Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma had held talks over the issue with chiefs of various political parties.

It may be that a proposal to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2006 was registered as the government bill on August 7, 2018, and the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee on June 23, 2020, presented its report to the House following the deliberations on the report.