Deliberation on Citizenship Act begins

Kathmandu: Deliberation on various Bills including the one formulated to consider amendment to the Nepal Citizenship Act-2063 has begun from today in the State Affairs and Good-Governance Committee under the House of Representatives.
This amendment bill is considered very important in terms of implementation of constitution. The Members of Parliament had submitted 23 proposals seeking deliberations and amendment on the bill. Earlier the Committee had held intensive discussions on the bill with the stakeholders.
Today’s meeting was attended by Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa where Committee member Janardan Sharma said that consensus on the bill should be sought from the top political leadership.
He argued that if the bill was formulated in all’s agreement, then only it could increase the sense of belonging among the citizens.
Lawmakers Rekha Sharma and Yasodha Gurung spoke of the need to ensure that process of obtaining citizenship on the basis of naturalized and descent be made easier. Stating that some articles in the new constitution relating to the citizenship identity card were not gender-friendly, they viewed that no woman should be granted citizenship identity card at the cost of their self-dignity.
Binda Pandey and Hridayesh Tripathi commented that there were 15 issues in the bill for the women to obtain citizenship identity card on the basis of descent and pointed out the need to amend them. Likewise, Committee member Prem Suwal said that citizenship obtaining process should be such that it should not pose threat to national sovereignty while lawmakers Nawaraj Silwal, Jhapat Rawal, Minakshi Jha and Bina Kumari Shrestha voiced that women’s dignity should be protected while granting citizenship ID card.
Committee President Sashi Shrestha said that the Bill would be amended in everyone’s consensuses.