First Citizenship Amendment Bill passed in Nepal

After two years of discussion, Nepal's Parliament passed the country's first Citizenship Amendment Bill on Wednesday.

House of Representatives had been discussing the matter since 2020 but failed to pass the amendment due to differences among political parties over specific provisions, reports NDTV.

One of the main differences in opinion centered around the seven-year waiting period for obtaining naturalised citizenship for foreign women married to Nepali men. During the meeting on Wednesday, Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand presented Nepal's first Citizenship Amendment Bill 2022 before the lawmakers.

Khand said that the bill was placed to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act 2006 and to make provisions for providing citizenship as directed by the constitution.

"There are thousands of people who are deprived of citizenship certificates although their parents are citizens of Nepal. The lack of citizenship certificates was further depriving them of education and other facilities. I appeal to help create an environment to endorse the new bill and for headway to implement the law by formulating new laws," the Home Minister said.

Earlier this month, the Nepali Government has withdrawn the Citizenship Bill from the House of Representatives. This took place after the main opposition CPN-UML lawmakers protested against its proposals.

The KP Sharma Oli government registered the bill at the Parliament Secretariat in 2018.