At the taskforce meeting held at Singha Durbar on Wednesday, the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML agreed to go for single citizenship. [break]
But the taskforce failed to take any decision as Sunil Prajapati of Nepal Workers Peasants Party (NWAPP) and Rukmini Choudhary of Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Manch opposed the major parties´ proposal.
They demanded that the constitution provide for two-tier citizenship.
"This [single citizenship] will pose a serious challenge to the country as the provincial governments might issue citizenships arbitrarily. There should be two-tier citienship. So we demanded at the taskforce meeting that the issue should be settled after holding wide-ranging discussions," said Prajapati.
The taskforce, headed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, will take up the issue again on Thursday.
However, leaders of the major parties stated that they are close to an agreement.
"We are almost agreed that the new constitution will contain a provision on single citizenship," said Maoist Chairman Dahal.
The major parties agreed that individual citizenship cards will reflect their provincial identities.
Maoist Chairman Dahal, Nepali Congress (NC) Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel, UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) Chairman Upendra Yadav, among others, were present during the meeting.
NC leader Ramesh Lekhak said leaders of the major political parties agreed that the responsibility of issuing citizenship would go to either the federal government or the provincial governments, a decision on which can be taken later after studying the reports of the CA committee on state restructuring.
MPRF Chairman Yadav, however, said that the leaders did not deliberate the issue in depth as they looked busy and left the meeting venue after an hour. "We may come out with some decisions tomorrow," he said.
The taskforce is currently deliberating the contentious issues of fundamental rights and directive principles.
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