Addressing the parliament on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister said that the political mechanism will be formed to recommend ways to resolve the disputes over provincial delineation through consensus. “The mechanisms will have a Terms of Reference (ToR) for giving recommendations through consensus to change provincial delineation within three months,” said PM Oli in the House.
Later in the evening, the cabinet also decided to form the political mechanism before PM’s India visit on Friday. According to communications minister Sherdhan Rai, Oli will hold a meeting with political parties on Wednesday to discuss about forming the mechanism.
Earlier, a meeting of top leaders from the three major political parties on Friday had entrusted the joint taskforce with drafting the ToR of the proposed political mechanism as the leaders intensified their negotiations for forming the mechanism before PM’s visit to India.
However, leaders of agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front claimed that the government has not discussed the issue of finalizing the ToR of the proposed mechanism either within the joint taskforce or among the top leaders.
“It would be better if the mechanism is formed before the PM leaves for India. However, the PM’s claims in the House could be an eyewash since the issue of finalizing the ToR is yet to be discussed within the taskforce or at any formal level,” said Ram Naresh Raya, a senior leader of Tarai Madhes Sadbhavana Party (TMSP) and also a member of the joint taskforce.
Sadbhavana Party Co-chair Laxman Lal Karna was also less hopeful that the high-level political mechanism would be formed by Friday. “Our movement has been demanding changes in the provincial boundaries. If high-level mechanism is to resolve the disputes on provincial delineation, we are demanding for clear ToR comprising the bases of the change. However, the major political parties are yet to discuss the bases of changing delineation with us,” claimed Karna.
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