Kathmandu, Nepal, August 30, 2022: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has expressed her serious concerns over the House of Representatives (HoR)’s endorsement of the amendment bill on Citizenship Act without any discussions on her suggestions.
As the HoR endorsed the bill without any discussions on her suggestions, president Bhandari expressed her concerns by inviting the office bearers of the ruling head Nepali Congress (NC) and main opposition party, CPN UML separately on Monday.
During the meeting with a group of the leaders of the Nepali Congress including its president and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, President Bhandari expressed her dismay at the parties’ ignoring her recommendations.
President Bhandari had returned bill to the House of Representatives for a review with different suggestions. The bill was forwarded to the President for authentication following its endorsement by the both houses of Federal Parliament on July 11. However, the President Bhandari had sent it back to the HoR on August 14 with suggestion for reconsideration on the bill.
However, the bill, which was endorsed from the HoR on August 18 without change ignoring the President’s call for a review, was sent in the National Assembly on Sunday for discussions to the Legislative Management Committee.
Since the ruling parties hold majority strength in both the houses of the federal parliament, they have already decided to forward the bill to the president Bhandari without any change for the authentication. It is said that the bill would be forwarded to the president within first week of coming September.
Prime Minister and Nepali Congress president Deuba, who had reached Sheetal Niwas along with Vice-president Dhanaraj Gurung, General Secretary Gagan Thapa and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, told the president that the government intends to resolve the citizenship problem by amending in the bill.
During the meeting, president Bhandari said that the bill was sent back to the House with some views for discussions but not with the intention of doing any political stunt.
Responding to the concerns of the president Bhandari, Prime Minister Deuba said “the government intends to address the citizenship problems as some citizens have become unable to exercise some fundamental rights due to the lack of citizenship.”
Prime Minister Deuba had a saying that the current bill is no different from the citizenship ordinance brought by the KP Oli government last year.
Following the meeting with the Congress leaders, president Bhandari also met the UML leaders. UML Senior Vice-chair Ishwar Pokhrel, Vice-chairs Subas Nembang and Ram Bahadur Thapa, and General Secretary Shankar Pokharel had reached at Seetal Niwas to meet Presdient Bhandari.
