As a result, the lawmakers are in dark about the functioning of the body and the effectiveness of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the country. The NIC has already forwarded six reports to the parliament through the prime minister so far.Clause 25 of the RTI Act states that the NIC should submit its annual report to the parliament through the prime minister for discussion. However, the annual reports of the NIC have been gathering dust at the store of the parliament. The legislature parliament secretariat has maintained that the reports have not been tabled or discussed in any parliamentary committee of full House due to unclear provisions in the interim constitution and parliament regulations.
The fact came to the fore after RTI activists Tara Nath Dahal and Nodnath Trital sought the details about discussion from the secretariat. "The reports of the NIC have not been tabled and discussed at parliament or its committees due to the unclear provisions in interim constitution and parliament regulations," reads the written response provided by the secretariat to the activists.
Although the NIC frequently requests the prime minister to forward its report to the parliament for discussion, the Right to Information Act implementing body itself is unaware of why the report has not been discussed in the parliament for years. "We are considering holding a consultation with the speaker of the parliament and its development committee chairman about the issue," NIC Chief Commissioner Krishnahari Baskota told Republica.
Rabindra Adhikari Chairman of the development committee, which oversees the activities of NIC, said that the committee will create an environment for discussing NIC's report in the parliament. "We didn't know about the matter so far. The committee will make efforts for discussing the report," said Adhikari.
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