KATHMANDU, Sept 9: After the Constituent Assembly (CA) committees failed to meet the deadline set by the CA to submit their reports, the CA on Wednesday rescheduled its calendar of events for the sixth time. [break]
The 601-member assembly had amended the calendar on July 16. As per the latest schedule, the CA has set a deadline to complete deliberations on all 11 preliminary draft reports and concept papers in the CA by November 15.
Only six of the 11 thematic committees have submitted their preliminary draft reports so far.
The eight-week-long timeframe (September 7 to November 21) given to the Constitutional Committee (CC) to prepare the first draft of the new constitution by integrating the preliminary draft reports submitted by the thematic committees has now been reduced to four weeks from mid-November to mid-December.
Deliberations on the first draft prepared by the CC will be held for a week starting December 16. Originally, the CA had allocated four weeks for the purpose.
A month from December 16 has been allotted for interactions and wider consultations with stakeholders, to receive feedbacks and to get suggestions from the people from across the country. Originally, three months had been fixed for the purpose.
Similarly, two weeks have been allotted to prepare a comprehensive report based on the people´s feedbacks and submit it to the CA by January 30.
The two-week previous timeframe allocated for deliberations on the report has been reduced to one week. Likewise, the three-week timeframe given out for making amendment to the first draft as per the feedbacks received from the people and submitting the bill of the constitution has been reduced to two weeks.
The CA, however, has not changed May 28, 2010, as the final date for the promulgation of the new constitution.
The CA had endorsed calendar on on November 16, 2008. It changed the calendar 0n December 29, 2008; January 6, 2009; April 13, April 29, July 16, and September 9, 2009.
thira@myrepublica.com
Related story
Janai Purnima, Raksha Bandhan, and Gai Jatra festivals schedule...
