Legislation committee approves special service bill

The legislation committee has approved the ‘Bill Designed to Amend and Integrate the Nepal Special Service Formation and Operation’. According to committee president Parshuram Meghi Gurung, the meeting today passed the bill with amendment. The bill has proposed 60 year retirement time bar to special service employees. The bill will be tabled in the National Assembly (NA) meeting today itself.

He added that the bill was designed by the government to strengthen its intelligence capabilities to counter threats to national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity among other serious issues.

It has proposed to control acts of secession, espionage, sabotage and subversion and protect national sovereignty, national integrity and communal harmony.

The bill has further provision of keeping under surveillance the audio and audiovisual conversation at the individual or institutional levels that are suspicious.

Gurung added that only authorized person could tap the audio and visual but it should have enough justifiable cause behind it.

However, such audio and video tapping will not be taken as the evidence in the court and if it was misused then there would be provision of penalty.