Ironing out major differences over the bill on the Reconstruction Authority, a nine-member sub-committee on Friday finalized its report for submitting to the full committee. Main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Anjana Tamlee has registered a note of dissent over one of its decisions.
Tamlee has opposed an agreement to discontinue previous appointments to the Authority. NC had been insisting on owning the appointments to the Authority made when it was in government.
However, if the sub-committee's proposal is endorsed, the chief executive officer and the other officials appointed by the previous government will be discontinued, said CPN-UML lawmaker Rewati Raman Bhandari.
The bill was in limbo for three months following differences among major political parties over some of its provisions. With the government failing to endorse a replacement bill through Parliament within 60 days of the commencement of the parliamentary session, the Authority formed through an ordinance was no longer functional.
According to Tarini Dutta Chataut, coordinator of the sub-committee, the bill is scheduled to be tabled in the full committee on Sunday morning. Lawmakers expect that the bill will be endorsed from the Bills Committee and will then be tabled in Parliament later the same day.
If the proposal is endorsed from the Bills Committee and by Parliament in full session, it will pave the way for the reformation of the most talked-about Reconstruction Authority.
The House panel has proposed a three-tire structure for the Authority. According to UCPN (Maoist) lawmaker Ram Narayan Bidari, an advisory council, a directive committee and an executive committee have been proposed.
The chief executive officer of the Authority will be chairman of the executive committee and four other experts will be members.
The prime minister will be chairman of the directive committee and a parliamentary party leader or deputy leader, a former prime minister or speaker (must be a lawmaker) from the party will be vice-chairman. Three experts will be members and the CEO of the executive committee will be its member-secretary.
Similarly, the prime minister will be chairman and the leader of the main opposition party will be vice-chairman of the advisory council. Each lawmaker from the most affected 14 districts will be a member of the advisory council. Similarly, the House panel has proposed various ministers and secretaries of the ministries as members of the council.
The activities of the Authority will be overseen through a monitoring committee at the district level. The monitoring committee shall be headed by a lawmaker from the respective district in rotation and the other lawmakers from the district will be members. The chief district officer and local development officer will also be members.
"The monitoring committee shall have the right to recommend action against any responsible individual involved if any fault is found," Bidari told Republica.
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