Ninth session of Parliament begins yesterday

The Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley who addressed the parliament in its inaugural ceremony spoke on various national issues like the Rupee crunch, Youth unemployment.

The PM said one of His Majesty’s biggest concern, is youth unemployment and their quality of education, job opportunity. The PM thanked HM for his visits to various schools and talking to the students. This he said will be of great help and motivation for the students. The PM highlighted His Majesty’s scholarship program under which students whose parents are financially weak can avail scholarship.

The PM also explained the causes of the Rupee crunch. He said Bhutan has loans for repayment but people don’t know how to save instead they spent, and tax repayment is a problem. To solve this problem all people should learn how to help each other and learn to produce, consume home products and be a self reliant country. It should be the collective thinking of the people.

Lyonchen thanked the Indian government for the 10bn loan at subsidized rate of 5%. “This was more than our expectations,” Lyonchen said.

The PM also appraised the drought situation in the nation which has proved most treacherous for farmers of the nation. Lyonchen said the same is being experienced by the whole world. Lastly he introduced the newly appointed speaker Kinzang Wangdi and assured all the support and help.

The Prime Minister mentioned the Pedestrian Day which started on June 7, 2012.

He said such an idea was aimed to solve the problem of fuel shortage, Rupee crunch, to keep our environment clean and to keep people healthy and to let people know each other.

The bills and acts for discussion in this session include: The Tobacco Control (Amendment) Act, Consumer Protection Act of Bhutan, Bhutan Institute of Medical Science Act, Public Finance (Amendment) Act of Bhutan, Sales Tax, customs and Excise (amendment) Act of Bhutan and the Adoption Act of Bhutan (as assent granted by the King and endorsed in the past session).

The three international conventions to be ratified in the ninth session are SAARC Seed Bank convention, Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising From their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity and Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol.

The Domestic violence prevention bill, land amendment bill and road bill will be introduced in the national assembly.

Two bills that were introduced and endorsed by the national council will be discussed in the national assembly; they are National Flag bill and parliament entitlement amendment bill

Education city bill, disaster management bill and Druk Gyalpo’s relief fund bill, which were endorsed by the National Assembly and subsequently discussed in the National Council, will also be discussed to resolve differences, if any, between the two Houses:

The people however, feels that some topics are really interesting to be discussed but some feel there are other bills which should be urgently discussed rather than those of domestic violence prevention bills.

Some feel it is unnecessary to have discussions on  the education city bill. It does not see any reason to have a special law for this project other than because it is a pet projects for someone.  “In any case I have serious doubts about the project’s viability. Before trying to make our country into a hub for international education, we should take a serious look at the quality of the existing schools and colleges in the country.” quoted Gamingumin in one of the most popular blogs of Bhutan.

The 9th session of the first parliament of Bhutan will last till 11th July.

 

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5 comments

  1. “In any case I have serious doubts about the project’s viability. Before trying to make our country into a hub for international education, we should take a serious look at the quality of the existing schools and colleges in the country.” quoted Gamingumin in one of the most popular blogs of Bhutan.

    This is a great remarks. Seriously, the eductaion city project is very much questionable. Look at the IT park. It is still empty despite spending US 8 million dollar from world bank or ADB loan.

  2. “In any case I have serious doubts about the project’s viability. Before trying to make our country into a hub for international education, we should take a serious look at the quality of the existing schools and colleges in the country.” quoted Gamingumin in one of the most popular blogs of Bhutan.

    politicians and bureaucrats who makes funny, silly, grandiose decisions should read above quote again and again untill they actually realises things better. 

  3. Ah IT park is management problem and lack of planning. We Bhutanese do more paper work. We never consult our experts. Instead the idea pops up into some influential people’s mind and decides it. That is the problem. Include our experts. It doesn’t matter at what grade they are.
    Have constructive Debate over the issues with experts.
    Here i want to narrate one incident. The CEO of the FORD asked all the manager from different places to come for meeting to decide the color of the car. The manager gathered in the meeting room. Then the CEO said ” welcome gentleman to the meeting. We will discuss the color of the car as long as it is black”. And nobody could raise the issue and it was supper flop. Same thing is happening with our manager and leaders.

  4. Where is the most important bill – The citizenship and census amendment bill? I think it is the most talked about and pressing and pending issue at the moment. Why is this issue never discussed in the NA?

  5. Congrats and good luck to all parliamentarians for the 9th session. prayers for good outcomes and good laws. don’t fight in that august hall for selfish needs but do so for selfless deeds. always keep the interest of poor in mind.

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