Guthi bill socialism oriented: Minister Banskota; Lawmakers divided on Guthi bill

Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Banskota has said that the guthi bill would be forwarded following cultural values and by ending the feudalism.

While making the latest cabinet decisions public today, Minister Banskota, also the government spokesperson, clarified that the nature of guthi in the Kathmandu valley and outside were different therefore they would be addressed accordingly in course of enacting laws.

He also shared that new laws were in progress to replace old laws. Minister said the bill was orienting towards socialism after eradicating all means of feudal production system. He also committed to holding discussions on the bill if required.

On another note, he also said that the media council bill would be finalized by the Parliament after holding prompt discussions. He said the bill would be discussed but not withdrawn. Minister Banskota said that the government duly respects freedom of press.

In response to queries from media persons related to the Parliamentary Committee's directive to scrap the Public Service Commission's recent vacancy announcement for local levels, Minister Banskota said it would be better if such directives were not given by the committee.

Lawmakers divided on Guthi bill

Lawmakers of the ruling parties have put forth their views in favour of the Guthi bill while those from the opposition parties protested it during the special hour of today’s meeting of the House of Representatives.

The Guthi bill has been registered in the National Assembly few days ago to manage the land of different guthis. There are Ram guthi, public guthi and private guthi.

On the occasion, lawmakers of the ruling parties said that the bill, brought as per Article 290 of the constitution, is going to make the people owner of the land and not the Guthi Sansthan (the government entity looking after the Guthis) while the lawmakers of the opposition parties blamed the government of bringing the bill by undervaluing the religion, tradition and culture.

There is 404,990 ropanis of Guthi land in the country. Guthi Sansthan is the owner of such type of land.

Most of the lawmakers blamed the government of turning its deaf ears to the direction of the State Affairs Committee to cancel the vacancy announced by the Public Service Commission.The Commission had few days ago made vacancy announcement for 9,161 employees.

Similarly, some other parliamentarians drew government’s attention to provide compensation to the victims of storm in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts as it caused huge losses there, to initiate constitution amendment process and to control river encroachment at different districts.

Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, Divyamani Rajbhandari, Chandrakant Chaudhary, Pradeep Yadav, Binadevi Budhathoki, Bishnu Sharma, Naradmuni Rana, Umashankar Agariya and Prem Suwal put their views during the special hour.