The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs informed this to the Parliament on June 26, 2018.

As the reports say, the Ministry is planning to endorse a total of 110 new laws supporting the full-fledged implementation of the new Constitution by September 2018.

 “There are 110 laws that need to be enacted to ensure constitution implementation. Of them, 37 are yet to be drafted. Some of the issues will also be addressed by the Civil and Criminal Code that comes into force on August 17,” said the Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sher Bahadur Tamang in a release.

Out of 110 laws, 73 have been drafted with some of them already endorsed and 37 laws are yet to be drafted with five of them still awaiting the addition of relevant rights.

The government is making moves to forward 25 of 73 drafted laws for Cabinet approval, which will further be endorsed in the Parliament.

“We have already issued theoretical approval to draft the laws to ministries, and the law ministry is continuously following up the issue with other ministries,” Tamang added.

The Law Ministry is expecting the other drafts by mid-July and is very serious about the set deadline.

 “If the ministries fail to complete the job within the given time frame, the Law Ministry may intervene or deploy additional human resources to expedite the drafting process,” says the Minister.

Constitutional Deadline Nearing…
In a move taking ahead the long-pending bills, the Government of Nepal has registered 16 out of 17 key bills pertaining to fundamental rights in the parliament on August 27, 2018.

The 17 new laws under consideration are going to make up the total 31 fundamental rights and duties as promulgated by Nepali Constitution.

Apart from these, ‘Right Against Torture’ is the only bill awaiting registration at the Parliament.

The latest move by the government comes in the wake of the constitutional deadline that mandates promulgation of all laws and bills before the midnight of September 19,2018, which otherwise will be ‘unaccepted’.

“There is only one fundamental law related bill registered in the Parliament. The government will register the remaining bills within some days,” Deputy-Spokesperson of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry Hum Bahadur KC said in a statement.

Some of the bills under process at the Parliament include: Right to Social Security, Right to Social Justice, Right Against Preventive Detention, Right of Victim Of Crime, Rights Of Child, Rights Of Women, Right To Clean Environment.

“The bills which were registered in the House are in the process of becoming laws,” informed Kesab Aryal, Deputy Spokesperson, Nepal Federal Parliament.

“Those bills registered in the Parliament were not drafted with proper discussion with related people. They should be discussed and corrected. It will be a disaster if the Parliament tries to fast-track the process. “These bills related to fundamental laws should not be passed without proper discussion,” comments opposition Nepali Congress lawmaker Gagan Thapa.

Now, it’s definitely a race-time for the government in view of the nearing deadline and growing critics from the opposition, before all the required laws are registered by the set deadline.

Meeting Constitutional Deadlines

Be it the timely local body polls,  followed by legislative elections, first parliamentary session and the formation of new government and recently, the announcement of Federal Budget for FY 2018-19, Nepal has been serious on meeting its new constitutional deadlines.

The latest decision by Nepal Government comes as part of its efforts to meet the constitutional provision, which mandates endorsement of all the laws by the midnight of September 18.

Moreover, there are also 375 old laws awaiting amendment to comply with the constitutional requirements.

As per the new constitutional provision, any law should be amended and endorsed within a year of the formation of the Federal Parliament, in absence of which, they will be deemed redundant.

To fulfil this urgency, the government has already commissioned a special panel to identify laws that need amendment.

“We need to do research to draft laws related to the rights of Dalits and women, right to employment and the right to shelter. Even if the study takes more time, we’ll make sure that the fundamental rights are ensured, and relevant details will be added through amendment at later stages. However, we will not miss the deadline,” affirms the Minister.

Meanwhile, regarding the laws pertaining to local and provincial bodies the government had already forwarded sample laws which are already under the process of enforcement.

Besides, the Law Ministry is planning to present the transitional justice bill in the Parliament.

Also Read:

• Nepal Policy Update: Key Bills Passed, Others On the Way

The post Foray of New Laws in Nepal, 110 new ones by Sep’18 appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

In a recent update, the formation of the new Nepali Government has been postponed to March 2018 post to the completion of National Assembly elections.

This was announced after a cabinet meeting on January 05, 2017 to discuss about the upcoming Assembly election.

Clearing the confusion over PM candidate, the recent announcement also informed that Khadga Prasad Oli would most likely be the next Nepali Prime Minister for a period of two-and-a-half years.

Following Oli, another key PM candidate of the left alliance Pushpa Kamal Dahal is likely to rule for the other two-and-a-half years of the term.

Constitutional Deadline Missed!

This update is coming at a time when the global Nepali community is waiting for the announcement of new government that was earlier planned at the end of December 2017.

While the constitution promulgated in 2015 called for the formation of new Nepali Government by mid-January 2018. However, political analysts feel that the constitutional deadline would be missed this time.

That is obvious because the Upper House is yet to be formulated. The Lower House is yet to be completed,” says Dr Surendra KC, a Kathmandu-based political analyst.

According to the analysts, delay in submission of final election results to the President’s office is resulting in the postponement of the new government formation.

National Assembly Election

Meanwhile, the National Assembly elections are scheduled for February 07, 2017.

The upcoming National Assembly election will see the election of 56 members including eight representatives each from seven provinces of the country.

And, the remaining three representatives will be directly selected by the President upon the government’s recommendations.

The post New Nepal Government Likely by March 2018 appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

However, the communist parties’ cabinet seat-sharing has been a matter of discussion since the time results were announced.

As per the latest update, the two parties are most likely to go on for a 60:40 ratio in seat sharing (the same ratio implemented for fielding candidates) if their discussions do not materialize before the formation of the new Nepali Government.

UML is reportedly keen on offering 30 percent cabinet seats to its ally MC based on the number of seats the party won in the recently-concluded polls.

According to Senior MC party leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the announcement of Proportional Representation (PR) seats will give a needed boost to the process of new government formation.

“Otherwise, there is no alternative but to reach a deal with the Nepali Congress (on the ordinance forwarded for National Assembly election),” Narayan added.

It will take at least two weeks to form the new government even after allotment of PR seats, says UML leader Rinal.

The discussions over announcement of Khadga Prasad Oli as the next Nepali PM was also halted due to row over the formation of new National Assembly.

“The meeting of the party unification coordination committee will begin as soon as Dahal returns from Chitwan, may be on Tuesday evening or Wednesday,” informed UML Secretary Pradeep Gyawali.

This update gains significance in view of UML’s recent announcement over formation of new Nepali Government most likely by the end of December 2017.

Provincial Council Results

Meanwhile, Nepal Election Commission (EC) has made another major announcement regarding Nepal’s landmark parliamentary and provincial polls.

EC, on December 22, 2017, announced the results of country’s Provincial Council (PC) elections under the Proportional Representation (PR) system.

The seats allocation under PC saw CPN-UML leading with 75 seats followed by Nepali ruling Congress with 72 seats.

While CPN-MC won 35 seats, Federal Democratic Forum (FDF) bagged 13 seats followed by Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-Nepal) that got 12 seats.

Parliamentary PR Results in Two Days

The results of the parliamentary polls under PR system are likely to be announced very soon.

According to the EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal, the PR unit functioning under EC will finish the Parliamentary PR seat allocation in the next two days. “We will unveil the result of Parliamentary PR elections as soon as possible,” informed Dhakal.

The post Nepal Elections 2017: Brainstorming Continues Over New Government, Seat Sharing appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The government took this decision at a cabinet meeting in Kathmandu on November 24, 2017.

Post the cabinet meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Kamal Thapa tweeted about this infrastructure project saying, “this national-pride project would be constructed with domestic investment and technology”.

This decision by the government is coming after a recent cabinet decision to scrap a deal signed with the Chinese company, Gezhouba Water & Power (Group) Co Ltd, for the construction of the same project.

A MoU for this contract signed in June 2017, however, could not move ahead due to allegations over violation of laws during the signing of the deal.

The post Nepal Announces Its National-Pride Hydropower Project appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

A decision in this regard was taken at a Council of Ministers meeting in in Singhadarbar today.

“The meeting of the Council of Ministers held in Singhadarbar today approved the USD 150 million assistance provided by ADB for the development of cities in Nepal,” informed the Minister for Finance Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.

It is noteworthy that ADB had earlier approved a USD 150 million loan assistance for the urban infrastructure development in Nepal in the month of September 2017.

The loan was intended for development of delivery of urban services in in eight municipalities of southern Nepal.

“Improving urban infrastructure and service delivery in major urban areas in Nepal, including in the Terai region, is a must, given their importance to the country’s economy and development,” Vivian Castro-Wooldridge, an ADB Urban Development Specialist said in a statement earlier this month.

Vivian Castro further informed that the project will ensure safe, sustainable and inclusive living for the public living in the southern parts of Nepal.

As per the estimates, the Government of Nepal would need to double its urban infrastructure spending to meet the future demand for 2030.

The post Nepali Cabinet Approves ADB Loan for Urban Development appeared first on Nepali Sansar.