As per the calendar endorsed by the CA in the first week of December, the CC was scheduled to settle all the remaining disputes by January 4 but failed to do so.[break]
The new calendar has given the CC a new deadline of January 29 to resolve the remaining thorny issues, such as the system of governance.
While the previous calendar allowed five days starting January 5 to decide any unresolved issues through voting in the 601-seat CA, the new timeline for that purpose starts from January 30.
The new calendar allocates only nine days starting February 4 to prepare the first integrated draft of the new constitution whereas the previous calendar had provided three weeks for this purpose.
Speaker Subas Nembang tabled the proposal on readjusting the calendar at the CA meeting Friday as per the suggestions of the CC and after consultations at the Business Advisory Committee.
The proposal was endorsed unopposed. He also talked the matter over with the chief whips of the three major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML-- on Thursday.
This is the 12th amendment to the CA´s calendar of events.
Earlier, failing to accomplish the given tasks within the set deadline, the CA effected the 11th amendment to its calendar of events in July, 2010. But the CA had blissfully forgotten the calendar of events and failed to even update it since November 2010. Last year, the CA gave continuity to its work for months without any calendar.
It was only in the first week of December, 2011 that the CA came up with its six-month timeline for statute drafting, only to miss the deadline yet again.
Panel formed to amend regulations
Meanwhile, a parliamentary meeting held earlier in the day formed a five-member committee to draft an amendment to the CA regulations.
Ekraj Bhandari of UCPN (Maoist), Ramesh Lekhak of NC, Agni Kharel of CPN-UML, Nilam Barma of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic and Janak Kumari Chalise of CPN-ML are members of the panel.
The committee was constituted to study and recommend solutions with regard to amending the CA regulations and paving the way for the entry of the state restructuring commission report in the CC, the body entrusted with preparing an integrated draft of the new constitution.
The CA regulations had envisioned the incorporation of only the preliminary reports prepared by the CA thematic committees.
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