The Budget (Barkhe) session of the Federal Parliament is starting on Friday. Normally, the last session will focus on policies and programs and budget for the next financial year, but this time there is pressure to pass some bills. Parliament has to give priority to the school education bill especially to address the demands of the agitating teachers.

The federal civil service bill has to be finalized to prevent employees from coming to the streets. 

The winter (bill) session of Parliament was ended on March 19, when teachers announced a Kathmandu-centric movement with the main demand of passing the school education bill.

This time, the Council of Ministers had decided to convene a session earlier than the regular time to pass the school education bill as the teachers did not have enough time. According to the recommendation made by the Council of Ministers on May 2, President Ramchandra Paudel has called the budget session for Friday at 1 pm.

There are 32 bills under consideration in both houses of the Federal Parliament, both governmental and non-governmental. The government has asked the parliament secretariat to prepare a schedule for moving forward the pending bill, keeping in mind the pressure of legislation. On the first three days of the budget session (14, 15 and 16 Baisakh), a possible agenda has been prepared, including sending the pending bill to the parliamentary committee, passing the bill passed by the committee along with the report. 

The government is under pressure to pass the school education bill as soon as possible because the school admission drive has been affected due to the teachers' agitation, the class 12 exam has been postponed and the examination of the SEE answer sheet has not yet started. This bill is under discussion in the sub-committee under the education, health and information technology committee. 

When the decision was taken to convene the Parliament session, the then Education Minister Bidya Bhattarai gave a clear indication of how much pressure there is to pass the School Education Bill. While narrating the decision of the Council of Ministers, she said, 'For the purpose of passing the School Education Bill as much as possible, it was decided to convene a session of the Federal Parliament and coordinate and facilitate the passage of the bill on behalf of the government and call for a meeting of the Federal Parliament.' The teacher is ready to demonstrate. 

The opposition parties along with the government are also taking initiatives to get the school education bill passed by the committee and sent to the house immediately. In Thursday's parliamentary party meeting of the main opposition Maoists, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal instructed the party's MPs to play their role in addressing the demands of the teachers through the cabinet decision, as the government could not meet the demands of the teachers. 

On the other hand, 6 trade unions of civil servants have given an 'ultimatum' to protest against the Federal Civil Service Act. This bill is under consideration in the State System and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives. The committee is about to finalize the report of this bill, which was discussed and prepared by the sub-committee.

'Union, state and local governments are pressuring that it should be passed quickly,' Ramhari Khatiwada, chairman of the state administration committee, said, 'On the one hand, it is being said that there is no sense of federalism because the staff bill is not coming, on the other hand, while this bill is pending, employees at various levels are putting pressure on the law making to fulfill their individual demands. That's why there is an obligation to pass the Civil Bill as soon as possible.' 

There is pressure on the government to pass the bills related to the Nepal Air Service Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority, which have been stuck in the House of Representatives. The European Union has banned Nepalese airline companies from flying to its member countries since 2013 citing reasons such as the fact that the regulatory and service provider bodies are the same in Nepal's air services.

In order to get rid of that ban, the government registered two bills in the House of Representatives in the previous session to divide the Civil Aviation Authority. At the beginning of the session, there is a possible agenda to send these bills to the International Relations and Tourism Committee. Civil Aviation Minister Badri Pandey has repeatedly said that this bill will be passed in the previous session.

The government is under pressure to pass some of the bills passed by the law committee to amend the Nepal Act, and the bill related to electricity and energy. Spokesman Ekram Giri, who is also the head of the Federal Parliament's Operations Division, informed that there is a possible agenda for President Paudel to present policies and programs on May 19, and discussions on the principles and priorities of the budget on May 28.

On June 15, the government will have to present the budget for the next financial year. Apart from the budget-related bill, the next session of the Parliament has to be carried out in regular legislative work. "If the report of the bill is passed by the committee, it is ready to be forwarded by the assembly even while the discussion on the budget is going on," he said. 

UML chief whip Mahesh Bertaula, who is leading the government, said that although the budget session will mainly focus on the policies and programs of the next fiscal year and the budget dependent bill, this year there is pressure to advance the regular work of law making with priority.

In this time's budget session, the main task is to advance the pending bill in the committees of the Parliament. Even though parliamentary committee meetings are held from morning to evening, there is pressure to bring the pending bill to a conclusion," he said. The Federal Civil Bill is also ready to be passed soon. Bertaula said that he will take the opposition along with him in the drafting of the law.

The chief whip of the main opposition Maoists, Hitraj Pandey, said that law-making should be prioritized during the free time in between working on the budget. "The bill will be passed after the completion of the budget work by the end of June, but before that, the law-making process should be accelerated. Education and Civil Bills are likely to come soon,” he said.