KATHMANDU, Aug 12: Lawmakers have criticized the top leaders of major political parties for not taking five bases of identity and four bases of economic-viability into consideration while delineating the country into six federal provinces in the new constitution.
Registering their views on the revised draft of the new constitution in the Constituent Assembly (CA) meeting on Tuesday, lawmakers from various political parties demanded revision of the proposed delineation of provinces.
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Airing his views on the draft, UCPN (Maoist) General Secretary Krishna Bahadur Mahara alleged the top leaders of ignoring the delineation criteria set by the previous CA. "The proposed mapping of provinces hurts the feelings of Tharu and Magar communities. It completely ignores the five bases of identity set by the past CA and the recent 16-point political agreement," said Mahara.
Madhesi People's Right Forum Democratic (MPRF-D) Vice Chairman Jeetendra Dev also strongly demanded that the Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) leaders revise the proposed map while addressing genuine concerns raised by Tharu and Rajbansi communities. "If the major three political parties are not ready to address these concerns within four days we may be compelled to withdraw our support to the six-province model," said Dev.
The first CA had defined ethnic, linguistic, cultural, geographical and historical continuity as five bases of identity and economic interrelation, status and prospect of infrastructural development, availability of natural resources and access to administrative facilities as four bases of economic viability.
Lawmakers from NC and UML also suggested revision of various issues in the draft including delineation of provinces. NC lawmaker Hridayaram Thani suggested declaring Karnali and areas in the farwestern region dominated by the Tharu community as special autonomous region. Referring to the power vested in the president in the new constitution, UML lawmakers Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel and Bhanubhakta Dhakal demanded correction to the provision.
Chairman of the Rastriya Janamorcha Chitra Bahadur KC said his party is ready to accept the draft although his party is against the very idea of federalism. Gopal Dahit of Tharuhat Tarai Party Nepal and Shiva Lal Thapa of Rastriya Janamukti Party also opposed the six-province model.
