The government’s latest bill aimed at regulating traditional Easter bonfires, known as “lambriadjies”, will not be voted on by parliament before Easter.

Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis’ final attempt to get the legislation through parliament before Easter on Thursday was rejected by the House legal committee, with the final parliamentary plenary session before Easter set to take place on Thursday.

Committee deputy chairwoman and Disy MP Fotini Tsiridou argued that the “practical implementation of the bill is impossible” given that the central government and local authorities are yet to agree on two key aspects of the plans.

“The directive was to agree on the text and then submit it to parliament. A text came, the various parties do not agree, and you do not agree with when it will enter into force. We cannot open a court here and hear both sides. The text should not have come like this, it should have been agreed upon and then submitted,” she said.

She added that the burden for resolving such disagreements “cannot fall on parliament”.

The first is over whether the police, the fire brigade, and the environment department should all be required to give permission for a lambradjia to be lit.

Hartsiotis told the committee that he saw such a provision as unnecessary, saying “we believe that if this provision were to be adopted, it would turn state services into the decision-making authority for the organisation of lambradjies”.

Local government representatives at the committee had said such permission should be a requirement, and had also argued that should the bill pass into law, it should take effect from next year so as to allow local authorities and the public to be adequately informed and to ensure there is “no confusion”.

Hartsiotis had argued that the bill should take immediate effect, with the current 10 days until Easter Saturday enough in his eyes for local authorities to begin approving applications.

Nonetheless, the discussion is now academic given that the bill now will not be voted on in parliament before Easter.

In addition, Tsiridou expressed her disgust that the bill was not submitted to parliament more than 48 hours before the start of the committee session, as is typically customary.

The bill had been amended after MPs had been less than impressed by the government’s previous version which had been presented to the committee last month.

Hartsiotis explained to the committee that in the new bill, provisions allowing individuals to apply to their local authorities to light their own lambriadjies have been removed, with only churches now allowed to apply to the authorities for permission.