A meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR), the lower house of the Federal Parliament, today unanimously endorsed the Nepal Engineering Council (First Amendment) Bill, 2076 BS.
Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Mohammad, Istiyak Rai had tabled a proposal in the meeting seeking passage of the bill which had originated in the National Assembly.
Before this, Minister Rai had responded to queries raised in the discussions on the bill along with the report of the Development and Technology Committee.
On the occasion, he explained that the amendment has been made in order to make the related Act brought in 2055 BS in tune with the time. The Minister said so far there is the provision of persons completing engineering degrees within the country and from abroad directly entering the engineering profession, and due to this questions have been raised from time to time on the quality of construction works.
“Arrangements have been made for the Council administering examination like in other professions for removing such issues,” he said, adding that the bill has made the provision for opening branch offices of the Council in all the seven provinces. The Council’s office is based only in Kathmandu at present.
Minister Rai said the bill has made provisions for providing online services as well and the Council is inclusive.
He further said the university will only monitor the colleges while the Council shall regulate after the completion of engineering studies.
Taking part in the discussions on the bill, lawmaker Ganesh Kumar Pahadi said the bill has been brought for discussions only after one and a half years and demanded that important bills should not be kept pending in the Business Management Committee.
Prem Suwal said that unlike in the past engineering education has these days become accessible to students from a humble economic background as well.
Sarita Kumari Giri called on the government to stop the outflow of a large amount of money to foreign countries for higher education.
Gajendra Bahadur Mahat opined that the system of licensing the engineers will be important while Dibya Mani Rajbhandari expressed concern that a large number of students who have completed engineering in the country were going abroad while only a limited number of those completing engineering degrees abroad were returning back to Nepal. (RSS)
