By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Sept. 27: Committees under the Federal Parliament are found fulfilling their responsibilities to the country and people even during the coronavirus pandemic that hit the nation some six months ago.
With the end of the budget session of the parliament on July 2 amidst COVID-19 fears, the mini-parliaments continued their watch on the government and public issues and issued various directives ranging from expediting the work at the development projects to taking care of the elderly people and pregnant women. Some of the meetings also covered issues raised and discussed in various social media platforms.
Sixteen panels of Federal Parliament organised at least 80 meetings in the corona crisis period of past six months.
Of these meetings, according to the Parliament Secretariat, about 30 were directly targeted to COVID-19 response, rescuing people from abroad, providing relief to the deprived communities and extending reliable health facilities in various parts of the country.
There are 10 committees under the House of Representatives and four under National Assembly while two are joint committees.
Developing prevention measures in the initial phase of the pandemic, expanding access of treatment to the patients, extending reach of PCR labs, quarantine management, establishment of holding centers, rescuing migrant workers were the issues lawmakers discussed in various subject committees.
They also deliberated on the immediate issues such as locust and monsoon that directly affected the lives of people across the country. Dr. Rojnath Pandey, Secretary at Parliament Secretariat, said that the early days of the pandemic were very uncertain because no one, including the government, was clear about the measures to be taken to check the spread of the pandemic and maintain normalcy in the public life.
Government imposed nationwide lockdown, sealed borders and cancelled flights on March 24 to control the possible spread of COVID-19 for a week. However, the lockdown got multiple extensions and continued for almost four months. Only two positive cases were confirmed when the lockdown was announced and the number rose to 18,289 by the time restrictions were fully lifted on 22 July.
About 459 have succumbed to the virus so far. About 70,614 people were infected with the virus and 51,866 have recovered.
The house panels were active even during the lockdown period when most of the businesses and service sectors were shut.
Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, Chair of Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, said that the mutual relations between the executive and legislature was maintained during the hard times, as the former paid attention to the committees’ directions.
“We asked the government to ensure basic human rights at critical time and it performed accordingly,” he said. The committee held four meetings and directed for ensuring ventilators in the intensive care unit.
According to Pokharel, PCR testing facilities were extended in all the states following the directions by a parliamentary panel for the same. “Most of the decisions made here were implemented by the government,” he added.
Finance Committee convened 13 times to identify shifted paradigms and priorities of the budget. They also analysed short and long run COVID-19 impact on the economy. It was active before the budget of FY 2020/21 was announced on June 28.
Women and Social Committee was the most active during the pandemic. Eakram Giri, Secretary of the committee, said that 15 to 20 meetings were held during the pandemic to guide the government on various social issues. Minimizing gender-based violence in quarantines, making them women friendly, ensuring social safety to women, children and elderly citizens, minimizing violations in lockdown, maintaining psychosocial issues for the people were the agendas of the meetings.
Recently the Women and Social Committee had discussed about the social impact of the pandemic and directed the government to take care of the poor and jobless families, create a strong database of such people and distribute relief materials.
Similarly, Pushpa Prakash Khanal, Secratery of the Education and Health Committee, said that the panel had directed the government rescue students from China and overseas, provide proper health services to the people at cheaper rates. The committee conducted four meetings, all virtually.
Pabitra Niraula Kharel, Chair of International Coordination Committee, said that the committee made directions on rescuing workers from international labour market, managing flight services for them, airport management, holding centre and other contemporary issues.
The coordination between the house panel and the government was not impressive in the initial days. “But the government gradually implemented the directions,” said Kharel.

She said that she received positive response from the government about the issues discussed by the committee and the directions made to the executive. There were four meetings of the committee.
However, leaders and lawmakers of the opposition party could not agree on the fact that there was harmonious relation between the legislature and the executive.
Balkrishna Khand, Chief Whip of Nepali Congress, said that the government ignored the parliament and was largely indifferent to implement the decisions on its own. “As they have a clear majority votes in parliament, the legislature has been ignored multiple times,” he said.
Khand said that the ministers who were ex-officio members in the committee had denied the decisions in the past.
He was unhappy with the sudden prorogation of the house session. “Neither the Speaker nor the lawmakers were aware of the sudden prorogation. Everybody was confused. It was a wrong decision to end the session in that manner,” he added.
According to Khand, ministers tried their best not to appear in parliamentary committees. “Distrust between ministers and parliamentary committee is widening,” he said.
Social experts agree with Khand.
Krishna Gurung, a professor at the Tribhuvan University, said that the government was criticized because it was lost in political bickering when the country was in crisis and people were facing shortage of basic amenities due to the pandemic.
“It was a disrespect to the public. The government was disoriented from the development work. They did nothing and wasted the golden opportunity,” she said.