Govt set to miss Sept 19 deadline for implementation

KATHMANDU, Aug 23: If you are expecting to enjoy all the new fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution soon, you may be getting ahead of events.

Although the government and parliament are both expediting the formulation of necessary laws for the implementation of 31 various fundamental rights provisioned in the new constitution, citizens may not yet exercise these new rights in the absence of the necessary regulations and directives.

Nobody knows precisely when these regulations will be introduced since their formulation process is yet to start.

For instance, the government registered a new bill in parliament on Wednesday to implement the Right to Employment . But the key provisions including collection of details of unemployed persons, verification of unemployed status, and livelihood allowances for the unemployed cannot be implemented in the absence of new regulations.

Similarly, a bill related to right to food, which is under consideration in parliament, mentions that provisions related to distribution of food to the deprived and identification of families and individuals failing to manage their own food shall be made as per the regulations, which are yet to materialize.

Also, a bill proposing financial aid or management of housing for the homeless living below the line of extreme poverty comes without detailed explanations to identify the prospective beneficiaries. This bill also mentions that it will be implemented as per the regulations.

A bill on provision of free secondary education to all has also been introduced in parliament without detailed provisions concerning primary level education, open schools and education facilities for children without parents.

Similarly, a bill to ensure basic health facilities for citizens also fails to incorporate provisions about service delivery, the list of diseases to be treated free of cost and school health service criteria, among various other things. The bill likewise promises to implement such provisions through needed regulations.

Provisions related to rehabilitation centers, reintegration of children back into society and other matters are also to be implemented after due introduction of the regulations. Another bill, on fundamental rights, similarly beckons various regulations and directives.

Of the total 15 urgently needed bills, the government has registered 12 in parliament. Three otherls are said to be in the pipeline . So far, eight bills have been registered in the House of Representatives, while four others are under discussion in the National Assembly.

But it now appears citizens will have to wait at least a few more months till their fundamental rights see the light of day.

It is mandatory for the government to enact laws for the implementation of fundamental rights within three years of the promulgation of the new constitution.