- Even province number may change
- Agree on no need to reappoint judges, constitutional body members
- Agree to threshold but to fix percentage later
KATHMANDU, Aug 16: As people in various parts of the country continue their protests against the proposed demarcation of federal provinces, top leaders from the major political parties have announced that they are to make adjustments in the province boundaries.The party leaders, following a meeting Sunday, said they decided to make changes in the boundaries last week and they were ready even to change the number of provinces to respond to voices raised in various parts of the country. They had made several changes in the past also.
"The boundaries will certainly be reviewed. Baglung and Rukum, that were earlier split between two separate provinces, will now remain intact," said Nepali Congress (NC) Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel while emerging from interparty negotiations at Singha Durbar.
Leaders involved in the talks said one more province is likely to be added and it will include parts of the western, mid-western and far-western districts.
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that they held serious discussions on the demands raised by people in Surkhet, Karnali and Tharuwan. "We have agreed in principle that the issues raised in these areas should be addressed," said Dahal.
According to him, the leaders also discussed how to address demands raised by some lawmakers and local leaders from the tarai-Madhes districts. These have demanded that part of the hills should be included in proposed province no. 2 that now comprises only eight tarai districts.
"Friends who earlier demanded a separate Madhes province have now insisted that some hills must also be included in that province. We are discussing how to address this," said Bijya Gachchhadar, chairman of Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D).
UCPN (Maoist) leader Baburam Bhattarai informed that the leaders are also thinking how to address the demand for special autonomous zones for Karnali and Tharuwan.
Issues settled
The party leaders have resolved whether or not to reappoint the Supreme Court justices and the heads and members of constitutional bodies following the commencement of the new constitution.
Earlier, the CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) had been saying it was mandatory to reappoint them but the NC was strongly opposed.
"We concluded that reappointments were not necessary as the new constitution was not introducing any new political system," said Gachchhadar.
Threshold
The top leaders have also reached understanding on a threshold criteria in the electoral system under the new constitution.
Gachchhadar said they decided to include a threshold provision with a view to ensure stability for the parliamentary system. However, they are yet to decide on the threshold percentage.
"We have been discussing different proposals ranging from two to five percent but we have yet to finalize it," he said.
The leaders are also yet to decide whether or not to remove secularism from the new constitution.
Some political parties have been insisting on removing that word while others have been opposing the removal proposal saying that was one of the major achievements of the popular movement of 2005.
Leaders from NC and UML, among others, have also proposed to replace the word 'secular' with 'religious freedom'.
The full CA last week gave the Constitution Drafting Committee a five-day deadline to update the draft constitution on the basis of recommendations made earlier by the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC). The deadline expires Monday. CPDCC had made some recommendations on the basis of public feedback from across the country.
But with the politicians yet to resolve some of the provisions, the drafting committee is unlikely to complete its task by Monday.
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