The lawmakers floated the five-province proposal at a joint meeting of NC Central Working Committee (CWC) and Parliamentary Party (PP) members Saturday morning.
According to the lawmakers, they proposed division of Tarai into five provinces--Koch-Birat, Mithila, Bhojpuria-Simroungadh, Awadhi-Lumbini and Tharuhat--in view of the demand for identity-based provinces across the southern plain.
The proposal differs slightly from the 11-province model which proposes to include Chitwan district in a province comprising Kathmandu Valley, and Kailali and Kanchanpur districts in a separate province comprising all nine districts in the far-west region. In a major agreement reached on Tuesday, UCPN (Maoist), the NC and the UML agreed on an 11-province federal model.
Though backed by most of the NC lawmakers and CWC members from Tarai districts, the proposal did not go down well with the lawmakers from far-west region who abstained from signing the press statement issued after the meeting. The NC lawmakers from far-west said the proposal goes against their demand for an undivided far-west region.
Some top leaders of UML and Maoists from the region have also taken stand in favor of an undivided far-west lately.
Addressing a press conference organized at the Constituent Assembly building in New Baneshwar, NC lawmaker and CWC member Mohammad Aftab Alam said it would be an injustice to have a single province across the Tarai region as demanded by various Madhes-based parties. “We proposed five provinces as having just one province across the Tarai region would be an injustice to many people living in the region,” he said.
Alam argued that the five provinces in the Tarai will help preserve the identities of different groups of people living across the southern plains of Nepal.
- Also read: Nepali Congress floats 7-province model
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