In order to end the increasing number of air accidents in Nepal, the parliamentarians have agreed that Nepal Civil Aviation Authority should be divided into a regulator and a service provider.

In the House of Representatives, during the discussion on the proposal of urgent public importance on how to make the airspace safe and reliable, which was proposed by RSWP MP Sobita Gautam, the parliamentarians said that the authority should be divided into regulators and service providers to break the comment that Nepal's skies are unsafe. While parliamentarians from Congress, Maoist, RASWP, RPPA, Janmaat and other parties participated in the discussion on the proposal of urgent public importance regarding air safety, the parliamentarians of UML, which is leading the government, did not participate.  

MP Gautam said that the Civil Aviation Authority, which has the responsibility of the regulator, is currently also doing the service provider work itself. Is there no conflict of interest when the regulating organization works as a service provider? Can the regulatory body operate the airport? Can air navigation service be provided? Can you give aviation training? Those who have provided such services should see whether they are correct or not. If they provide many such services, who will see whether they have provided good and quality services?," asked MP Gautam. ; If there is other work, there is other business, there is selfishness, this is not correct in any case.' 

Gautam also said that due to air accidents in Nepal, it was found that the pilots did not have enough training opportunities. "When talking to the pilots, the training in Nepal is not enough, it is not of good quality, it is as if the training is given only for the training certificate of the entire air sector, not only the pilots. The exam is not of good quality. She said . He also said that there are political appointments in sensitive institutions like the authority and there is always political protection over the people who have been there, which has created a problem . She said that playing with the lives of air passengers has brought Nepal into disrepute in the international arena.

Congress MP Uday Shamsher Jabara mentioned the data of 72 fatal air accidents in Nepal since 1962 and said that the last 8 accidents happened during the time of Director General of Nepal Civil Aviation Authority Pradeep Adhikari . In the 2 and a half years since February 2022, the present DG of CAN took the lead, in the meantime, 8 accidents have occurred and 123 passengers have died. The DG takes responsibility for it verbally but has not been able to take it in practice,' he said.

He said that the European Union, ICAO, air safety experts are all talking about Nepal's air safety, but the state is not listening. He said that there will be no air security until there is a conflict of interest in Pradhiran and only 93 percent of the total budget of the authority is allocated to service providers and only 7 percent to the regulator.

MP Hit Bahadur Tamang of the Maoist Center said that air accidents occur in Nepal due to various reasons including geographical difficulty, weather complexity, collision with birds, as well as the fact that the service provider and the regulatory body are the same. "The Civil Aviation Authority has been doing regulatory work as well as service provider work, which includes areas such as airport operation, navigation service and aviation training institute operation . "There is a suspicion that this is the main cause of our air accident," he said.

Congress MP Rajendra Bajgai said that air safety will be ensured only by dividing the civil authority in charge of service providers and regulatory bodies. He claimed that the priority of the Authority's DG was on airport construction rather than air safety.

RSWP MP Sumana Shrestha said that there is a plan to build an airport in the country, but more than 75 percent of the airport is not in use. He also asked why the bill to divide the authority was not tabled in the parliament.

Congress MP Ramhari Khatiwada said that the comment that "planes buy ministers in Nepal" has been established. He said that the purchase of low-quality aircraft had an impact on air safety as well as on the economy. MP Sanjay Gautam said that the regulatory body in air safety has not been able to work properly. ``No one paid attention to the ICAO report . Can has such a big bully, there is no limit to it,' he said. 

RP MP Anisha Nepali said that due to lack of full implementation of air safety standards, security is in danger. He said that the performance of the regulatory body of the air sector is weak. 

Maoist MP Sudan Kiranti shared his experience of power struggle when trying to divide the Civil Aviation Authority into a regulator and a service provider. Kiranti, who is the former Civil Aviation Minister, suggested to the Civil Aviation Minister Badri Pandey to bring a bill to create a service provider and regulator to dismantle the 30-year-old structure of the Civil Aviation Authority. We should directly say that the bill to divide the Civil Aviation Authority should be drafted. The time has also been favorable, it was not favorable in our time,' he said, 'regulators and service providers must be separated . When the bill passed by the National Assembly came to the House of Representatives, how, why did it come back under the shadow . The shadow of a very powerful person must have fallen. During my time, it was brought to the Cabinet after a lot of effort. I remember the sad day when the work was delayed for 6 months.' He suggested that the authority should implement the international standards and plans made by the President, Prime Minister and Ministers of Nepal.  ;

Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Pandey informed that the preparations for reviving the bill to divide the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority and bringing it to the parliamentary process have reached the final stage. While answering the questions raised by the parliamentarians in the discussion, Minister Pandey said that the bills to make Nepal Civil Aviation Authority a regulator and service provider have been approved by the Ministry of Finance and have been sent to the Ministry of Law.

'We looked for two bills that were prepared to be two different bodies . As soon as it was met, the bill reached the legal status of starting from zero. Then we presented it to the Ministry of Finance. "The Ministry of Finance has given its consent with its opinion," he said, "We have sent the draft to the Ministry of Law for consent." I think it will come soon and after we go through the process, these two bills will come to the parliament and the government will move forward in the direction of establishing two institutions. ; However, those bills were not tabled in the House of Representatives. It is suspected by the then ministers and MPs that the bill was not allowed to be submitted in the House of Representatives due to various manipulations.

Minister Pandey said that the MPs will also address the issue that there is a big difference in international and domestic air passenger insurance. He also informed that a high-level study committee is being formed to study the report of the investigation committee formed after the air accident and to review whether there is a problem in Nepal's air system. There has been an informal discussion in the Cabinet to form a high-level study committee to see if there is any problem in the overall system. It studies, reviews and analyzes the reports of all investigations conducted so far. Next, it will work to determine where the problem is in the system. There will be experts in the committee.