Winter session of parliament prorogued

Once again, the House of Representatives (HoR) has become the victim of a tussle between ruling and opposition parties. Amid a weeks-long obstruction from the main opposition Nepali Congress, the winter session of the Parliament has ended without endorsing dozens of long-pending crucial Bills, “to make preparations for the budget session of the parliament”. 

Speaker Devraj Ghimire read out a letter received from the President’s Office announcing the prorogation of the session from Sunday midnight, on the recommendation of the government.   

The current session, which started from Jan 16, endorsed just three bills—Monitoring and Evaluation Bill, Food Purity and Quality Bill and Anti-Money Laundering Bill. The session convened 23 times in 23 days—for 81 hours and 55 minutes.
NC had obstructed the parliament, demanding a parliamentary panel to investigate the alleged involvement of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane in a cooperative scam, while the ruling parties had maintained that such a panel was unnecessary as there was no proof of Lamichhane’s involvement in the said scam. 

Principally, the main business of the winter session is to make laws, but it was too occupied with political issues, including a vote of confidence for the government.

In particular, the government was preparing to get a Bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission endorsed through the parliament this time around, to no avail. It is now preparing to make appointments in TRC and Commission on Enforced Disappearances.

Speaker Devraj Ghimire, however, said the third session of the parliament was more successful than previous sessions in terms of law-making and voicing public concerns. 

The main opposition NC has described the decision to prorogue the winter session as an ‘undemocratic move’, stating that there was enough time to prepare for the budget session.