Miscellaneous
Amendment bill registered
Seventeen days after the promulgation of new constitution, the government registered a bill at Parliament on Wednesday, proposing amendments to the statute to address the concerns of the agitating parties.Binod Ghimire
Seventeen days after the promulgation of new constitution, the government registered a bill at Parliament on Wednesday, proposing amendments to the statute to address the concerns of the agitating parties.
The proposal, drafted by the Law Ministry, was tabled in Parliament Secretariat following endorsement from the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The government has proposed changes to three Articles of the new constitution. The amendment proposals in Articles 42, 84 and 286 call for providing constitutional guarantee for the proportional inclusive representation in the state agencies and delineation of electoral constituencies prioritising population.
The Cabinet had directed the ministry on October 3 to draft the first amendment in the Constitution of Nepal as per the demands of the Madhesi and Tharu parties, who have been protesting for the past 53 days. The amendment addresses two of their major demands. The meeting of the Parliament has been called for Friday which will start the deliberation in the amendment proposal.
According to Law Ministry spokesperson Tek Narayan Dhungana, the amendment proposal in Article 42
will ensure proportional inclusive representation of the marginalised communities in all the government machineries. Currently the Article only states inclusive representation.
Similarly, amendment proposal Article 84 will revise the present basis for the delineation of the electoral constituencies, taking into account geography and population. “The amendment proposal in the Article has a provision of electoral constituency delineation prioritising population size,” said Dhungana. The proposal states the electoral constituencies will be demarcated based on population and geographic advantage and specialty.
The agitating parties have been demanding demarcation of electoral constituencies based on the population size and its revision every 10 years instead of 20 years as envisioned in the constitution. The amendment proposal in Article 286 envisions forming Electoral Constituency Delineation Commission to redraw the existing constituencies prioritising the population size.
It states that the commission shall delimit the constituencies ensuring that the representatives in the Federal Parliament are proportionate to the population size with at least one in each district.