Upper House will send new message from this session: NA Chair Dahal

KATHMANDU: National Assembly (NA) Chair Narayan Prasad Dahal has pointed out the need to send a new message with a way out based on political and ideological principles as it is a forum of eminent persons.

In an interview to media on the eve of the commencement of the budget session of the Federal Parliament, the Upper House Chair stressed on the need to make the system, process and procedure of running the parliament more novel, active and efficient.

It has been 14 months since Dahal assumed the office of the Chair of the National Assembly.

The monsoon session of the federal parliament is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

In the interview, he shared his views on the activities of the National Assembly, future plans, constitution implementation and amendment, raising of issues of public concern by lawmakers in the Assembly and implementing its decisions.

Chairman Dahal said, “My fervent desire is focused on making the National Assembly, the upper chamber of the Federal Parliament, effective in the coming days, learning from past practices and experiences by identifying the problems and their solution.”

Asked about on what topics the NA’s activities were focussed, he said they have been focussed on important parliamentary activities and on exploring the solution to related problems. “Now the budget is in the process of preparation. We, the office-bearers and administrative staff, are busy in discussions focusing on it,” he added.

Regarding the plans of making the Parliament’s monsoon or the budget session special and different than the previous ones, Chair Dahal agreed that the National Assembly session should be taken ahead in a new way and they have been making internal preparations to that end.

“This is the 18th session of the National Assembly. Some bills to be presented as ‘business’ in the session are under discussion in the parliamentary committees, while some have been registered and tabled,” he said, adding that seven bills passed by the NA and to be forwarded to it by the House of Representatives, the lower house, with message are pending and two bills are under discussion in the Legislative Committee.

Chairman Dahal said these bills will be pursued once the session is under way.

Stating that the people were in confusion regarding the functioning of the upper chamber of the parliament and somewhat disinterested taking over what they call its lackadaisical performance, he said in this context, the National Assembly has to ‘do something differently’ in this session in terms of principles and ideology, to dispel the doubts.

“Parliament will also have to address the issues seen on the streets. The main question is where our shortcomings lie and how to figure them out. The National Assembly should be able to give a new message as it is a community of intellectuals. On an evaluation so far, the NA meetings have not seen frequent obstructions from the opposition parties,” the NA Chair said.

Stating that since different parties are represented in the NA, the house cannot remain untouched by national politics, he said the NA Secretariat is making internal preparations to take the meeting in a new way.

Asked about his plans to making the NA sessions effective, Chair Dahal said they are trying to identify the past shortcomings and to address them.

According to him, the experience so far is that the NA sessions have been effective. “It can be reckoned from the conversation with the President, the Prime Minister and other intellectuals so far that the National Assembly has gained momentum. They have praised the way the NA business has been conducted, but still the procedures and systems of running the Parliament have to be made more different and lively.

Stating that some changes have been made in the past practices and the practice of conducting the ‘Special Hour’ and the ‘Zero Hour’ has been started, he said, adding that this change has brought a kind of verve in the upper house.

According to him, the lawmakers have been given adequate time during the parliamentary debates and also during the so called ‘Emergency Time’, the Special Hour and the Zero Hour to air their views on matters of public interest.

Chairman Dahal also reiterated that every effort would be made to making the lawmaking process more expeditious in this session.