Speaker Ghimire calls for making parliament the highest esteemed institution

Speaker Devraj Ghimire said that the parliament and parliamentary committees will be taken forward based on our realities and by learning from the countries that are practicing democracy.

At an interaction on the occasion of 17th Parliament Service Day here today, Speaker Ghimire instructed the Federal Parliament Secretariat to perform its duties in the way of making the highest legislature of the country a unique State organ.

Stating that in order to make the parliament effective, the employees should have a determination to deliver with honesty, the Speaker presented the instances of many organizations having qualified employees but still failing to deliver the desired results.

He viewed that the employees related to the parliamentary service should be alert and aware about discharging their duties in more disciplined and dignified manner as, he added, that the parliament functions directly with the people representatives and is responsible for drafting laws.

On the occasion, National Assembly member Dr Khimlal Devkota presented a working paper on the parliament and effectiveness of parliament secretariat and lamented that that Executive allocated a lesser amount of budget for the Federal Parliament on the contrary to the principle of balance of power.

He bemoaned, “Of the Rs 1.751 trillion budget presented by the incumbent government for the current fiscal year, Rs 1.22 billion has been allocated to the Federal Parliament. The Federal Parliament should patronize the provincial parliament as well.”

Similarly, House of Representatives’ Secretary Padma Prasad Pandey drew the attention towards the shortage of tools and skilled human resources in the Federal Parliament apart from the lower morale of the employees there to deliver optimally.

Likewise, Dr Rojnath Pandey, Secretary at the Federal Parliament, viewed that questions arose about who would acknowledge the pain and problems of the Secretariat employees who were discharging their duties to the best of their ability and discretion.

Senior journalist Hari Bahadur Thapa opined that the parliament, considered to the temple of the democracy, should pay attention towards devising quality and effective laws with high morale.

Federal Parliament’s Joint-Secretary Babita Mishra viewed that the low participation of the employees in theoretical exams, dismal results and problems in retaining them for discharging parliament services had evidently shown the decreasing interest of the employees towards parliament services.

It may be noted that around 300 employees are serving under the Federal Parliament Secretariat at present.

The Parliament Service Day is observed on 28th of the Nepali month of Mangsir every year to commemorate the day when the Parliament Service was separated from the Civil Service.