Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Deepak Khadka held a 'weekly discussion' on the 'Electricity Bill, 2080' pending in the Infrastructure Development Committee of the House of Representatives at a hotel he owns. While the committee was continuing its weekly discussion on the electricity bill, Minister Khadka took the secretary and experts of the committee and discussed what topics should be kept in the hotel and what should not be kept.
Minister Khadka held a discussion at the hotel 'Holiday Inn' in Budanilkanth, where he has invested. In that discussion, the chairman of the committee that deliberates on the bill, Deepak Bahadur Singh, and the coordinator of the sub-committee formed to finalize the bill, including Gokarn Bista, were not invited.
committee secretary Udayakumar Bhandari, law ministry officials, energy ministry officials, former energy secretary Suman Sharma, former energy secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, who is also an expert advisor to the chairman of the infrastructure development committee, and others were discussed. Minister Khadka has written information about the
discussion with photos on Facebook. The Electricity Bill is indispensable to pave the way for achieving the national goal of producing 28,500 MW of electricity by 2035 by fully utilizing Nepal's energy and hydropower potential. Taking this as my main responsibility, I have discussed it in detail with the secretary, former secretaries, energy experts, regulatory bodies, high officials of the ministry and representatives of the Nepal Electricity Authority,' Khadka wrote, 'We believe that this bill, which has been prepared through our joint efforts, will effectively solve the current energy challenges as well as speed up the development of hydropower . This bill will have a positive impact on the national economy, encourage private and foreign investment and create a strong foundation for a prosperous and bright future for all Nepalis.'
One of the members of the committee said that it is doubtful that the minister discussed the pending bill in a hotel in which he has his own investment. On behalf of the government, Energy Minister Khadka did not give an opinion on the provisions to be included in the bill,' said the MP, 'It was advised to give time so that the ministry could prepare well, but he took the bill and went to his hotel for weekly discussions. It is a serious matter for the minister to take the bill under consideration in the sub-committee, which is chaired by honorable Gokarna Bista, to the hotel and discuss it regularly and ask the secretary of the committee and the officials of the ministry to do it accordingly.'
A former secretary of the Ministry of Energy said that it is not legal for the minister to discuss the bill that is the property of the parliamentary committee in a hotel. "After the bill enters the parliament, the parliament or the parliamentary committee will discuss it periodically and the minister and secretary of the ministry will accept the matter passed by the parliament after taking the opinion of the government," said the secretary. It is our system to accept the minister and secretary of the ministry even if they don't like it.'
Infrastructure Development Committee Secretary Bhandari said that the ministry has requested time to form an opinion on the report prepared by the sub-committee on the electricity bill. He informed that the bill will be discussed in the committee from next Friday, but he did not want to talk about the discussion on the bill at the minister's hotel. He also participated in the discussion. He said that he does not know who owns the hotel where the bill was discussed.
