“The proposal to divide Chitwan into four provinces is illogical. We reject the proposal because as it suggests separation of the world heritage site Chitwan National Park from Chitwan,” said a joint statement issued by the leaders from the district.[break]
UCPN (Maoist) General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa, the party´s standing committee member Amik Sherchan and Narayan Prasad Dahal, Chitra Bahadur Shrestha, Khushiram Pakhrin, Renu Dahal and Shanta Neupane from the same party issued the statement.
Meanwhile, Uma Regmi and Sundevi Joshi from the Nepali Congress, former Finance Minister Surendra Pandey, Sita Paudel, Sharada Kumal and Lalmani Chaudhary from CPN-UML and Parvati Mahato Kumal from CPN-ML have joined the campaign against the SRC´s proposal.
The lawmakers have said they want the district undivided in the federal map.
“We want to make it clear that we will not make any compromise on this stance,” reads the statement. The lawmakers have also argued that the locals of Chitwan should not be separated from the national park as the latter are completely dependent on the park for their livelihoods.
Earlier, lawmakers representing the Far-western region, other lawmakers from Karnali and leaders from eastern region had rejected the commission´s report. They have also demanded that their regions be kept intact while drawing the federal map.
Related story
NC, UML to reject majority vote at SRC
