Legislature-Parliament an Introduction:
The present Legislature-Parliament constituted on 15th January 2007, the day Interim Constitution of Nepal was promulgated. It comprises of 330 members and is unicameral in nature. The meetings of the House are chaired by the Speaker & Deputy Speaker and panel of members nominated by the Speaker with the approval of the House. Important decisions like impeachment, constitution amendments requires two-thirds majority of the total members of the Legislature-Parliament. The quorum for taking any decision requires the presence of at least 25% members present and voting.
The Legislature-Parliament is assisted in it’s work by 14 different subject Committees and 7 Special Committees. Bills introduced in the House are normally referred to the related Committee for deliberations. The Special Committees are entrusted with special tasks.
The members belong to different twelve political parties including the Nepali Congress has 85 members, Nepal Communist Party (UML) has 83 member, Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) has 83 Members ( members including nominated by Maoist from civil society), Nepali Congress (Democratic) has 48 Members, Rastriya Prajantra Party has 8 Members, Nepal Sadhbhavana Party (Anandidevi) has 6 sits, Peoples Front Nepal (Lila) has 4 sit, Ratriya Peoples Front Nepal (Chitra) has 3 sits, Nepal Communist Party (Unified) has 2 sits, Nepal Workers and Peasant Party has 4 sits and United Leftist Front has 3 sits in Legislature Parliament. Mandate of this Legislature-Parliament is to hold elections of the Constituent Assembly by Nov 22, 2007. There shall be more then four hundreds members in the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly shall draft a new Constitution & function as Legislature. The tenure of Constituent Assembly would be two years from its first meeting.
Legislature-Parliament Secretariat
The Legislature Parliament Secretariat is the main support organization which is established under the constitution of the country. In order to successfully accomplish the important Legislatury works including the operation of legislative procedure, for debates, interpreting and transmitting the opinion of the executive to the members the Legislature-parliament secretariat of Nepal plays a vital and significantly important role. In addition to this the Legislature-Parliament Secretariat is responsible to facilitate imminent needs for the member through its staff in a competent manner.
In the above context to maintain a secretariat to provide all possible legislative, administrative, legal and other related information services. The secretariat is a permanent institution.
The Parliament Secretariat is headed by a Secretary General who is assisted by the Secretaries of parliament as well as other staff working in various functional division and sub-divisions. The presently there are more then 262 staff working in the secretariat. The number was about 335 before the adaptation of the parliamentary services Act 2058 B.S., which indeed delinked the parliamentary service from the Government of Nepal’s General Administration services.
The Secretary General of the Parliament is appointed by the speaker of the Legislature Parliament. Similarly the Secretaries. The recruitment and conditions of services of the other employees are governed by the Public Service Commission and the parliament services Act. Presently the secretariat function through sections under the direct supervision of different divisional heads in which more then 262 staff members serve with complete political impartiality. They are involved in varied works and provide services for the procedural matters of the House, security, Housekeeping, Information, Accounting, Verbatim Reporting, IT service. IT trainings and many other works in the chambers and in the committees.
All the permanent staff members of the Legislative Parliament belong to a single organization called the Legislature- parliament secretariat. The entire staffs are allocated in different divisions and sections of the secretariat.
From the perspective of the functional relationships the working divisions are placed on eight groups in which different sections are classified according to the worked of the divisions concerned. While maintaining the chain of command between the sections and divisions they are categorized and linked with the compatible works. The working division which is directly related with the House and its subsidiary bodies fall under the supervision of concerned secretary of the respective common purposes fall under the direct supervision of the Secretariat General.
Organization Structure:*
1. Legislative Division, Legislature Parliament:
a. Table Section
b. Question Section
c. Verbatim Section
2. Committee Division, HOR:
Finance Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Foreign Relations & Human Right Committee
Natural Resources and Means Committee
Environment Protection Committee
Population & Social Committee
State affair Committee
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Committee
Development Committee
3. Legislative Division, NA
a. Table Section
b. Question Section
c. Verbatim Section
4. Committee Division, NA
a. Remote Area Committee
b. Delegated legislation Committee
c. Special Committee
d. Government Assurances Committee
e. Social Justice Committee
5. Parliamentary Information Division (Common Service):
a. Press of Public Relation Section
b. Printing & Publication Section
c. Research & Library Section
6. Foreign Relations and Coordination Division (Common Service):
7. Administrative Division (Common Service):
a. Personnel Administration Section
b. Accounts Section
c. Parliamentary Service Management Section
d. Internal Administration Section
e. Technical Section
8. Law Division (Common Service):
a. Legal Advisory Section
b. Bill Section
9. Sergeant at-arms Division (Common Service)
a. General Security Section
b. House Keeping Section.
*(according to Legislature- Parliament regulation new organization chart coming soon)
Update: January 1, 2007
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