House panel directs govt to ready federal laws at the earliest

Published On: May 11, 2019 08:49 AM NPT


KATHMANDU, May 11: The National Concerns and Coordination Committee of the National Assembly has directed the government to promulgate the laws related to power-sharing among the three tiers of government — central, provincial and local — without further delay.

The direction of the committee comes in the wake of the provincial governments pressing the federal government for formulating necessary laws related to the common powers of the three tiers of government in the federal structure. 

The upper house committee had visited the seven provinces and held interactions with the federal, provincial and local level representatives on issues related to coordination among the governments on national issues. 

“The committee has directed the Prime Minister's Office and the ministries concerned to expedite the formulation of laws, giving top priority to laws governing the common powers of the three tiers of government, federal police, federal civil service and public service commission for endorsing those bills within the ongoing House session,” said Dilkumari Rawal Thapa while submitting the committee's report to National Assembly Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina on Friday. 

While pressing the government for ensuring equal right to all lawmakers on budget allocation under constituency development projects, the parliamentary committee has directed the government to address their demands. Lawmakers elected to the National Assembly and those elected to the lower house under the Proportional Representation category have demanded that they be given equal rights by revising the working procedure of the project selection which has granted executive powers to the directly elected lawmakers. 

The report has also stressed the need for formulating various laws necessary for the local and provincial governments to exercise their constitutional rights. In its report, the committee has also asked the government to fulfill the vacancies in the federal structures immediately, paving the way for recruitment at the provincial and local levels and forming the provincial public service commissions. 

Similarly, the parliamentary panel has suggested keeping the national pride projects and priority projects with huge investment under the jurisdiction of the federal government, projects to be implemented in more than one district under the province and production and income-based projects under the local governments. 

At a time when the Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission is delaying preparing its recommendation report, the parliamentary panel has suggested to the government to maintain preferential rights of the local governments over service tax and royalties. 

Chairperson of the National Assembly, Timilsina said that the report will be discussed in the upper house meeting before the government is directed for its implementation.


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