Ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders look headed toward scuttling the 500 million dollar American grant largely on the basis of misinformation and rhetoric. NCP has remained a divided house on Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grant assistance of the US government. While a section of leaders, mostly representing former UML, has stood in favour of endorsing MCC agreement from the parliament, those aligned with former Maoist faction seem resolutely opposed to the idea. It was hoped that the task force formed by NCP to study the matter and make the recommendations to the government would come up with the needed solution. It did not. As a matter fact, the task force, which submitted its recommendations to the government on February 21, seems to have made the matters worse, when it suggested that the government should not endorse MCC without revising the contract.  The government has been hesitant to even start deliberations on MCC after the task force submitted its report.

KATHMANDU, March 3: A private bill was registered at parliament on Monday proposing legalizing the farming, processing, trade and export of marijuana in the country.  Former law minister Sher Bahadur Tamang registered the bill at the parliament secretariat proposing to “legalize the farming of marijuana for commercial use keeping in view its economic benefits for the country.”

KATHMANDU, Feb 12: Lawmakers have drawn the attention of the government on various issues of public concern during the zero-hour of the meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Wednesday.

KATHMANDU, Feb 11: Nine small parties have submitted a memorandum to speaker of the House of Representatives Agni Sapkota demanding not to ratify the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Nepal Compact.

KATHMANDU, Feb 11: The Parliament meeting resumed on Tuesday after the main opposition party Nepali Congress withdrew its ongoing protest.

KATHMANDU, Jan 31: Various eight commissions have tabled their annual report of the fiscal year, 2075/76 in today's meeting of the House of Representatives.

KATHMANDU, Jan 25: Parliament secretariat has planned to certify next week five bills, which were shelved even after endorsement from the parliament in the absence of speaker.

KATHMANDU, Jan 22: Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leader Agni Prasad Sapkota is all set to be elected speaker of the lower house of parliament unopposed as no other lawmaker contested against his candidacy.

KATHMANDU, Jan 21: Nearly four months after the resignation of Krishna Bahadur Mahara from the House speaker, parliament decided to hold the election for new speaker on Sunday.

KATHMANDU, Jan 17: The Amnesty International (AI) has asked Nepal’s parliament to amend the Information Technology (IT) bill in conformity with the international standards and ensure that the law is not used to criminalize the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.

KATHMANDU, Jan 3: The upper house of parliament on Thursday directed the government to settle boundary issues with India, unanimously endorsing a resolution motion that demands the reclaiming of the Nepali territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura from encroachment by the Indian side.

For a few days, yours truly had been searching for the topic to write something or anything about. You see this scribbler is not some great writer, who can write a masterpiece in a jiffy, in a manner that a magician brings out all sorts of objects as per the demand from the audience.

KATHMANDU, Dec 24: Leaders of the former Maoist faction within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) are miffed with their leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal for what they describe as 'trading' the position of House speaker for the post of party executive chairperson.

KATHMANDU, Dec 13: The International Relations Committee under the House of Representatives (HoR) has directed the government to issue a map of Nepal specifying its territories, Limpiyadhura, Lipulek, Kalapani and Susta belonging to the country, at the earliest.

KATHMANDU, Nov 8: The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has been mulling over asking Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe of the lower house of parliament to step down to ensure that the party secures the post of speaker. The post fell vacant after the ouster of Krishna Bahadur Mahara last month in the wake of allegations of attempted rape.

KATHMANDU, Oct 20: Keeping in view the urgency to elect speaker of the lower house, the government is mulling to recommend to the President to summon the House session by November end, said multiple sources familiar with the latest development.

KATHMANDU, Oct 14: As the post of speaker remains vacant following Krishna Bahadur Mahara's arrested on a charge of attempted rape, Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe is preparing to certify some bills although constitutional provisions and parliamentary regulations are silent about her authority to do so.

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KATHMANDU, Oct 1: The government has signed a program implementation agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) representing the US Government, taking the implementation of the US$ 500 million MCC Compact a step forward. The signing of the agreement comes in the wake of criticisms from some leaders of the ruling party over a plan to ratify the Compact agreement in the parliament.

KATHMANDU, Sept 19: The budget session of the House of Representatives was concluded on Thursday.

KATHMANDU, Sept 19: President of the main opposition party Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba has accused the government of running anti-constitutional activities.

KATHMANDU, Sept 19: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's scheduled address to the Federal Parliament was canceled at the last minute today afternoon.

KATHMANDU, Sept 19: The deadline of the Study and Recommendation Parliamentary Special Committee, formed under rule 17 of the House of Representatives-2075 BS has been extended till next session.

KATHMANDU, Sept 18: The meeting of the National Assembly (NA) on Wednesday unanimously passed three bills- 'Safeguards, Anti-dumping and Countervailing Bill-2075, 'Industrial Enterprises Bill-2075' and 'Economic Procedure and Financial Accountability Bill-2075'.

KATHMANDU, Sept 18: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday said that the government will work to safeguard hard-won federal republic democracy at any cost.

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KATHMANDU, Sept 16: Lawmakers of the main opposition party Nepali Congress are currently obstructing the proceeding in the House of Representatives.

KATHMANDU, Sept 12: The National Assembly today has passed two bills related to forests and the environment. The Assembly passed the bills unanimously.

KATHMANDU, Sept 12: Parliamentary Committee on Development and Technology has said that it will hold a comprehensive discussion with the concerned stakeholders to resolve various demands raised by local people around Sisdol landfill site at Bancharedanda in Nuwakot, which is under-construction.

KATHMANDU, Sept 11: Lawmaker of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Pampha Busal has said that all the entry-points along Nepal-India border should be sealed.

One of the main reasons the government of K P Sharma Oli is receiving public criticism is because it has been introducing one after another controversial bill in the parliament. Most controversial in this regard have been Guthi Bill, Media Council Bill, National Human Rights Commission Bill and National Security Bill. The first was criticized because it had the provisions that political party in power could use or misuse to curtail press freedom or selectively target media houses which disseminate news and views critical of the government.

KATHMANDU, Sept 8: The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has demanded the government to come up with an action plan in order to control Dengue outbreak.

KATHMANDU, Sept 7: Within three months after withdrawing the Guthi [Trust] Bill in June, the government is all set to take back the disputed National Security Council Bill which the government registered at the Parliament Secretariat six months ago.

KATHMANDU, Sep 7: A parliamentary committee has decided to study all recent court decisions related to the controversial capital gains tax case to be paid by telecommunication company Ncell, following questions from various quarters after the judiciary invalidated the tax assessment by the Large Taxpayers Office (LTO) two weeks ago.

KATHMANDU, Sept 6: Chief Executive of Nepal Tourism Board Deepak Joshi has pointed out poor road condition and security environment as two major challenges to the forthcoming Visit Nepal 2020.

LONDON, Sept 5: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government abandoned attempts in the upper house of parliament to block a law aimed at stopping the country from leaving the European Union without a deal.

KATHMANDU, Sept 4: A lawmaker from the main opposition Nepali Congress Gagan Thapa has urged Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to take rest citing the fact that the prolonged absence of the country's executive head may have an adverse impact to the entire national security and diplomatic dealings.

KATHMANDU, Sept 4: The government on Wednesday has clarified that it could not pay the unsettled amount to the contractors who worked for Melamchi Drinking Water Project under Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna (CMC).

KATHMANDU, Sept 3: Members of Parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance Committee were sharply divided over some of the provisions of the proposed Citizenship Bill on Tuesday.

KATHMANDU, Sept 2: The Ministry of Youth and Sports has tabled a new bill in Parliament seeking action against athletes and their accomplices involved in match-fixing.

KATHMANDU, Aug 30: Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights have expressed its concerns over the Supreme Court’s decision on Ncell tax assessment.

KATHMANDU, Aug 30: With the government tabling the controversial Media Council Bill in parliament on Thursday, the onus now lies with the parliamentarians whether to ensure press freedom by accommodating the concerns raised by the media fraternity in the new legislation.

KATHMANDU, Aug 30: The lower house of parliament endorsed the Advertisement Regulation Bill on Thursday amid concerns from media organizations over contentious provisions including jailing media owners for advertisement-related offenses and one-door policy on distributing government advertisements to the private media.

KATHMANDU, The meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) has endorsed the Advertisement (Regulatory) Bill-2076 BS on Thursday by a thumping majority.

KATHMANDU, Aug 29: Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Baskota said on Thursday that no cabinet meeting had taken place through video conference.

KATHMANDU, Aug 28: Differences among lawmakers and indecision among the top political leadership over whether to require a threshold period for naturalization through marriage has stalled the citizenship bill in parliamentary committee for a year.

KATHMANDU, Aug 27: The meeting of House of Representatives (HoR) on Tuesday has endorsed the National Identity Card and Vital Registration Bill-2076 BS.

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WELLINGTON, Aug 22: As New Zealand lawmakers vigorously debated fuel prices in parliament this week, speaker Trevor Mallard called for order while feeding baby Tūtānekai his bottle.