Current Affairs
The Provincial Affairs Committee of Bagmati Province has rejected an amendment bill that sought to curtail the powers of the Office of the Communications Registrar.
Thursday morning's Provincial Affairs Committee meeting presided over by the 110-member Provincial Assembly's Committee for Internal Affairs decided to remove three controversial provisions of the amendment bill.
The bill was drafted in 2021 by the Assembly's Provincial Government Law Drafting Committee, headed by the Internal Affairs and Law Minister Keshav Raj Pandey.
Incumbent Internal Affairs and Law minister Krishna Prasad Khanal, who inherited the controversial amendmens, took a firm stance once he "properly understood" the bill which would have gone "against the spirit of a Supreme Court verdict dating back to 2007", knowledgeable officials said.
Three options
Khanal gave three options to the meeting: withdraw the controversial bill completely; make amends without curtailing the powers of the Office of the Communications Registrar; or postpone the Committee meeting to discuss the pros and cons of the provisions included in the amendment bill.
The 16-member Committee, composed of the Provincial Assembly's heavy heavyweights, opted to scrap the controversial provisions once and for all.
"This decision puts to rest all efforts by the interest groups to stifle and undermine the Office of the Communications Registrar," said Rewati Sapkota, a former journalist who was appointed the Communications Registrar in 2019.
Sapkota is the only provincial registrar to date as the remaining six provinces have yet to name their own communications registrars.
Where it began
The amendment bill was drafted last year, shortly after the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) practically split in December 2020 following the resignation of Bagmati Province's Minister for Internal Affairs and Law.
Dormani Poudel, Bagmati Province's Chief Minister at the time kept the portfolio to himself before inducting UML's Keshav Raj Pandey as Jamakattel's succeessor in April 2020.
Aided by Chief Minister Paudel and Provincial Secretary Madan Bhujel, the new minister dictated the text of the amendment bill, the process documents indicated.
