Speaker Devraj Ghimire has started the preparations for the formation of a special committee to investigate the provision in the Federal Civil Service Bill that nullifies the constitutional or government appointment provision for two years after resignation or retirement from government service.

Speaker Ghimire along with Deputy Speaker Indira Rana discussed the issue of formation of a special committee with the chief whips of the ruling Congress and UML and the main opposition Maoists in the House of Representatives on Thursday.  In the

discussion, Speaker Ghimire informed that a special committee will be formed based on Rule 180 of the House of Representatives Rules regarding the fraud in the report of the bill. After that, he asked for proposals from the parties regarding the work to be done by the committee and its duration and the list of members to be in the committee. "During the discussion, the chief whips have suggested that it would be appropriate to form a parliamentary inquiry committee," Speaker's press expert Shekhar Adhikari told Kantipur. 

Rule 180 of the Rules of the House of Representatives provides that "a special committee may be formed as needed in the House of Representatives for bills or other work of a special, sensitive or serious nature". "If such a committee is to be formed, the Speaker will present a proposal along with the list of members who will be in the committee, including the work and time period, in the consultative meeting (representative assembly) of the Working Arrangement Consultative Committee," it said. The meeting of the Public Order and Good Governance Committee on Wednesday decided to ask the Speaker to form a committee to investigate the provision that has been maintained in the bill to neutralize the 'cooling off period'.  

'Cooling off period': cheating in the name of discussion

While preparing the report of the bill from the committee, the secretariat of the committee, representatives of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration and the Ministry of Law wrote the language, and the committee concluded that it was a conspiratorial and malicious act in terms of law making. 

Chairman Ramhari Khatiwada informed Speaker Ghimire about the decision of the State Affairs Committee. After that, the Speaker discussed with Congress Chief Whip Shyam Kumar Ghimire, UML Chief Whip Mahesh Bertaula and Maoist Chief Whip Hitraj Pandey. The next meeting of the House of Representatives is scheduled for June 23. Speaker Ghimire is preparing to propose a special investigation committee in the same meeting. It was discussed with the Speaker that all the political parties should sit and decide. The number of members of the committee, the terms of reference and the duration will be decided in a few days," said Ghimire.

Maoist chief whip Pandey, who is also a member of the State System Committee, informed that it was agreed that the Speaker would announce the special committee in the upcoming meeting of the House of Representatives. "After the procedure is made, it will be decided what and who will be investigated," he said. 

UML's Chief Whip Mahesh Bertaula said that the need for investigation was felt as there was no such thing regarding the civil bill as the parliamentary committee should finalize the bill or other matters in a mature, effective and quality manner. He mentioned that the decision to request the Speaker to be investigated by the parliamentary committee is also new in the parliamentary practice of Nepal. "There has been a consultation between the leadership of the parliament and the representatives of the political parties on how to proceed in such a situation," he said, "in order not to repeat such a weakness, there has been a matter of forming a special committee according to Rule 180 of the House of Representatives Rules to investigate the matter and where it happened." A new clause was added in the Civil Bill to provide for the cooling off period, but the new provision was made ineffective by retaining the old clause. This is also a matter that parliamentarians should pay attention to,' he said, 'even if someone did something with some interest, if the state system committee or parliamentarians had studied it, if the parliamentarian who spoke on the day of passing the bill had read it, this situation would not have happened.'

Regarding the special committee, they said that they would discuss it within the party and convey their views to the Speaker. The fourth party of the Parliament, the Raswapa, has mentioned that it is a trick to make the 'cooling off period' ineffective and has demanded the formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate those involved in it. 

The State System Committee unanimously decided in Section 82 (4) of the Bill on Civil Service that 'an employee who has resigned or retired from civil service or other government service shall not be appointed to any constitutional or government position before the completion of two years from the date of retirement'. But in order to break this provision, Article 82 (5 a) provided that no appointment can be taken except for constitutional or diplomatic appointments and any other appointments made by the Government of Nepal. Only after the bill was passed by the House of Representatives last Sunday with the report of the committee, questions were raised about the provision made in Section 82 (5A).  Suraj Kumar Dura, Secretary of the State Administration Committee, Subhash Kumar Bhattarai, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Law, and Meera Acharya, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of General Administration, were involved in preparing the report of the