KATHMANDU, Dec 10: The bills committee of the parliament has finally endorsed the Reconstruction Authority bill ending months-long wrangling between the ruling party and the main opposition, Nepali Congress (NC), over certain provisions of the proposed law.
A meeting of the committee decided to forward the Reconstruction Authority bill along with the note of dissents registered by NC lawmakers.
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But, the ordinance became invalid as the previous government couldn't replace it with new bill within 60 days after the House session commenced.
The NC insisted on developing the new bill as continuity to the ordinance as that would also lay the grounds for giving continuity to the appointment of its candidate, Dr Govinda Pokhrel, as chief executive of the proposed authority.
The NC-led government's appointment of Pokharel as the CEO was invalidated with the government's failure to replace the ordinance with a new bill.
However, the present ruling coalition's CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) strongly opposed the NC proposal arguing that the new bill needed to start afresh as both the ordinance and the Reconstruction Authority became inactive due to the erstwhile government's failure to endorse the replacement bill from the parliament within the given time.
The House panel has proposed three-tier structure of the authority-- advisory council, directive committee and an executive committee.
Chief executive officer of the authority will head the executive committee and other four experts will be included as its members.
The prime minister will head both the directive committee and the advisory council while parliamentary party leaders of the main opposition will be the vice chair in each body. The parliamentary party leader of the main opposition party will automatically be the vice chair of the proposed advisory council. But s/he can recommend one of its deputy leaders, former prime minister, speaker or a leader of similar rank as vice chair of the directive committee.
A lawmaker from each of the most-affected 14 districts will be members in the proposed advisory council. The House panel also proposed various ministers and secretary of the ministries as members of the council.
Registering his note of dissent over the committee's decision, NC lawmaker Nabindra Raj Joshi demanded to accommodate their amendment proposals in the bill saying that such a move may ease its endorsement from the full House meeting.
“However, NC's Radheshyam Adhikari gave us the nod to endorse the bill with the amendment proposals as note of dissent,” said UML lawmaker Rewati Raman Bhandari.
Speaking at the meeting, UCPN (Maoist) lawmaker Ramnarayan Bidari stressed that the bill should no longer be prolonged in the committee under any pretext.
As a result of dispute between the ruling and the main opposition parties, the bill remained in limbo leaving thousands of quake victims in frustration.
An earlier attempt to forward the bill to the full House through voting in the bills committee of the parliament was canceled after NC leaders urged to forge consensus on the disputed clause 33 of the bill.
Bills committee Chairperson Ganga Chaudhari said that the bill will be tabled in the next parliament meeting for the endorsement if leaders of the agitating Madhes-based parties end House obstruction.
Donor agencies, that have pledged huge aid amount, have been pressing the government and political leadership to establish the Reconstruction
Authority so that the funds could be mobilized for the reconstruction of the structures ravaged by the April earthquake to rehabilitate the displaced people.
Due to the failure in establishing the much-awaited body, no concrete works have been done even eight months after the quake leaving hundreds of thousands of children, elderly people and other vulnerable population in a pathetic condition in these winter days.
The Reconstruction Authority was formed through an ordinance in June following the International Conference on Nepal Reconstruction (ICNR).
If the bill gets endorsed from the full House meeting, it will pave way for the re-establishment of the much-awaited Reconstruction Authority.
