The UML's standing committee meeting held Friday took the decision even though the party had earlier been insisting on forwarding the bill only after reaching a political deal with the agitating Madhes-based parties. But the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) had been criticizing the present government for not moving forward the bill.
"The [standing committee] meeting has decided to move forward the constitution amendment bill, which was registered [in parliament] by the previous government, with a view to address the problem in Tarai-Madhes and demands raised by the communities from the region," read the statement issued by UML spokesman Yogesh Bhattarai. "Also, the meeting decided to move ahead by forming an all-party political committee to address vairous voices and issues with regard to boundaries of provinces."
The amendment bill has made some changes to the constitutional provision relating to ensuring inclusive representation for marginalized communities in various state bodies and other provisions related to electoral constituency delimitation. The amendment bill uses the wordings "proportional inclusive representation" to change the provision and gave emphasis to "delimiting electoral constituency based on population" as demanded by the Madhes-based agitating parties.
The UML top body also promoted former Constituent Assembly Chairman Subas Nembang as the party's standing committee member and appointed leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal as head of its international department and Jhalanath Khanal as chief of the policy research.
Similarly, it has called a two-day "special national convention of party members" starting December 7.
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