Valley
House elects chairpersons in 12 parliamentary committees
The Legislature Parliament elected the chairpersons in 12 parliamentary committees on Wednesday, more than nine months after the Constituent Assembly elections.Binod Ghimire
There are 13 parliamentary committees. UCPN (Maoist) leader Janardan Sharma was elected the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) a week earlier, as a parliamentary tradition of entrusting the leadership of the committee to the main opposition. The leadership of the remaining 12 committees were elected unanimously on Wednesday, with the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML heading four committees each. Besides the Sharma-led PAC, UCPN (Maoist) has received leadership responsibility over one more parliamentary committee, while the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N), and the Madhes-based and other fringe parties will each lead one committee.
Prem Bahadur Singh from Samajbadi Prajatantrik Janata Party Nepal and Ganga Chaudhary (Satgaiya) of Tharuhat Morcha Nepal had filed their candidacies for the leadership of Legislative Committee, which was allocated for the fringe parties. Chaudhary was elected unanimously after Singh withdrew his candidacy minutes before the election.
The Chaudhary-led Legislative Committee is one of the only two parliamentary committees to have female leadership. The other one is the Women, Children, Elderly Citizen and Social Welfare Committee.
According to the Secretariat of the Legislature Parliament, NC got the leadership of Agriculture and Water Resource Committee led by Gagan Thapa; State Management Committee led by Dil Bahadur Gharti; Industry, Commerce and Consumer Welfare Committee led by Bhisma Raj Aangdambe; and Parliamentary Hearing Committee led by Kul Bahadur Gurung.
UML will head the Development Committee under Rabindra Adhikari; Finance Committee under Prakash Jwala; Good Governance and Monitoring Committee under Sher Dhan Rai; and Women, Children, Elderly Citizen and Social Welfare Committee under Ranju Jha.
UCPN (Maoist) lawmakers Prabhu Sah and Janardan Sharma will be leading International Relations and Labour Committee, and PAC.
Shushil Kumar Shrestha of RPP-N was elected the
chairman of Committee for Social Justice and Human Rights. Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Loktantrik lawmaker Janak Raj Chaudhary was elected the chairman of Committee on Environment Protection.
Parliamentary committee election
- Agriculture and Water Resource Committee- Gagan Thapa (NC)
- State Management Committee: Dil Bahadur Gharti (NC)
- Industry, Commerce and Consumer Welfare Committee: Bhisma Raj Aangdambe (NC)
- Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee: Kul Bahadur Gurung (NC)
- Development Committee: Rabindra Adhikari (UML)
- Finance Committee: Prakash Jwala (UML)
- Good governance and Monitoring Committee: Sher Dhan Rai (UML)
- Women, Children, Elderly citizen and Social Welfare Committee: Ranju Jha (UML)
- International Relations and Labour Committee: Prabhu Sah UCPN (M)
- Committee for Social Justice and Human Rights: Sushil Kumar Shrestha (RPP-N)
- Committee on Environment Protection: Janak Raj Chaudhary (MJF-L)
- Legislative Committee: Ganga Chaudhary (Fringe parties)