The leaders made the claim after the meeting of Special Committee formed under Constitutional, Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) held at Singha Durbar on Tuesday evening.
According to leaders involved in negotiations, they have decided to finalize the issues during a meeting to be held with the top leaders on Wednesday morning. “We are close to an agreement on all issues. We will reach some form of consensus by Wednesday evening,” NC Vice President Ram Chandra Paudel told media persons after the meeting.
Among other things, the major parties have agreed to remove the term “secular” from the preamble of the new statute and replace it with an appropriate term acceptable to all and clarify the provisions related to citizenship to address the concerns of women and Madhes-based political parties. The parties have agreed to remove the word Nepal from the Article 13 (3) of the draft constitution and clarify the term 'Nepali origin' keeping in view the concerns of the Madhesi people.
However, the major parties are still at odds over the official language and whether to keep the term 'father or mother' or 'father and mother' in the citizenship provision.
CPDCC Chairman Baburam Bhattarai, who is also the coordinator of the Special Committee, expressed happiness over the progress made during the Special Committee meeting on Tuesday. "Significant progress has been made as top leaders, including the prime minister, attended the Special Committee meeting today," said Bhattarai.
The Special Committee is entrusted with settling key contentious issues of the new statute such as state demarcation, citizenship and demand for direct election for key political positions. NC Vice President Paudel said they plan to submit the report after settling disputed issues of new statute on Thursday.
The decision to submit the report comes after CA Chairman Subas Nembang on Tuesday drew the attention of CPDCC Secretary Mukunda Sharma over the delay in submission of the final report to the CA. The CPDCC is already three days behind schedule.
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