KATHMANDU, Dec 18: Major political parties have decided to wait for the agitating Madhes-based political parties to join the deliberations on constitution amendment proposal till Wednesday.
A meeting of top leaders and chief whips of the major political parties, convened by Speaker Onsari Gharti on Friday, took the decision to defer deliberations on the bill till Wednesday, which was slated to begin from Friday. Agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) had warned of moving away from talks with the government if the major political parties pushed the bill forward unilaterally.
Discussion on constitution amendment bill removed from business...
The UDMF has been opposing the bill, terming it incomplete and stating that it fails to address all the demands of Madhes. "Although major political parties have already agreed to take amendment proposal forward, we decided defer the House meeting for a few days to seek nod from the agitating parties," said Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala after the meeting.
According to leaders attending the meeting, Koirala himself had proposed that deliberations be delayed by a few days to have agitating parties join the debate. Madhes-based parties did not obstruct a brief meeting of the parliament on Friday after parties agreed to defer the deliberations on the bill.
"The deliberations has been postponed after leaders from the major political parties stressed on agitating parties joining the talks," said Speaker Onsari Gharti. According to the Clause 3 of Article 274 of the constitution, people should be informed prior to holding deliberations on any amendment bill.
Accordingly, a notice has been published in Gorkhapatra daily on Friday informing the public about the impending debate on the first amendment bill.
