Parliamentary panel witnesses heated debate over proposed citizenship bill

Kathmandu / Sept 13: A meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on State Affairs ended inconclusively on Friday as the committee members demanded time to study a final report prepared by the government over the Citizenship Bill (amendment) which is under discussion in the House.

Majority of committee members, on Friday, opined that they should be given adequate time to go through the report tabled by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs before making a final decision.

Committee Chairperson Shashi Shrestha, however, exerted pressure to decide on the matter, inviting tension among the lawmakers and the chairperson. She was of the view that no additional time was required since the panel had already spent considerable time over the matter.

The lawmakers reiterated that enough time for minute study was required as the issue of citizenship is a serious one.

Lawmakers –namely Brijesh Kumar Gupta, Dilendra Prasad Badu, Krishna Gopal Shrestha, and Pampha Bhusal asked for a day to have a detail examination on the report.

At the meeting, the undersecretary at MoLJP Subash Bhattarai read out the amendments made on the Bill including citizenship to those whose parents are not identified, providing citizenship after sex-change and naturalized citizenship to foreigners marrying Nepali male or female citizens.

Naturalized citizenship has been one of the very contentious issues among the parliamentarians for a long time.