A cabinet meeting held at Singha Durbar Thursday took a decision to this effect. The government had formed the Tahir Ali Ansar-led CDC on June 25, entrusting it with the responsibility of reviewing the existing 240 election constituencies in accordance with the latest census report. [break]
While geologist Netra Dhital, sociologist Dambar Chemjong and former bureaucrat Madhunidhi Tiwari are the members, legal secretary at the Prime Minister´s Office, Raju Man Singh Malla is the member secretary of the CDEC.
According to Article 154 A of the Interim Constitution, the government may constitute a constituency delimitation commission to determine election constituencies for the purpose of electing members of the Constituent Assembly, and the commission shall consist of a retired justice of the SC as chairperson, a geographer, a sociologist and an administrator or management expert as members and a special class officer in the service of the government as member-secretary.
As per the existing constitutional provision, number of constituencies needs to be increased as the latest census showed that the population has increased in all the districts across the country except for Kavrepalanchowk.
Although the constitution has stated that the number of electoral constituencies shall be increased on the basis of latest population census, the number of constituencies has already been fixed in the constitution and that has stood as a contradiction.
A recent amendment to the interim constitution has fixed the total number of seats for the upcoming CA at 491. While 240 will be elected directly from the constituencies, 240 others will be nominated as per seats allocations under proportional representation system. Likewise, 11 CA members will be nominated.
As the CDEC required political consensus to take any decision on delineating fresh electoral constituencies in view of the constitutional difficulties, the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) had earlier formed a separate eight-member task force to make suggestions to the HLPC. The Task Force also failed to make any recommendation to the HLPC as it involved constitutional difficulties.
NGOs, individuals asked to distribute relief through govt channels
Following the controversial move by former King Gyanendra and Himani Trust to distribute relief materials to flood- hit people in Darchula district, the government on Thursday asked all concerned to distribute such relief or aid strictly through government mechanisms that are in place at local level.
Talking to media after the cabinet meeting, Minister for Information and Communications Madhav Prasad Poudel, who is also government´s spokesperson, also reminded the recent decision of Election Commission (EC) regarding the election code of conduct aimed at ensuring free and fair election scheduled for November 19.
While directing ministries and government bodies concerned to facilitate the process, Minister Poudel asked all individuals and non-government organizations or government bodies concerned interested in providing relief or aid to flood victims or other needy people to contact government bodies concerned.
Among other things, the cabinet meeting gave nod to Makawanpur District Administration Office to set up view tower in Daman and approved the upcoming visit of Finance Minister Shankar Koirala to Pakistan to participate in Nepal-Pakistan Joint Economic Commission meeting scheduled to be held in Islamabad from August19-20.
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