Among the major political parties, none other than the UCPN (Maoist) has officially presented its model to the CA committee, though the deadline issued by the committee for the political parties to submit their models has been extended thrice. Delineating their provinces along ethnic lines, the Maoists have presented a state restructuring model with 15 provinces. During the meeting, CPN-UML CA member Mangalsiddhi Manandhar said his party has already decided to go for 15 provinces, and that the committee meeting should not be delayed waiting for a UML model.
The UML Standing Committee meeting had directed the party´s state restructuring committee led by Ram Chandra Jha to prepare its federal model. But Jha, who is also the CA committee member, said the party is yet to officially endorse a 15-province model. “It is not yet official, though we have tentatively agreed to go for 15 provinces,” said Jha.
Similarly a CA member from the NC, Narahari Acharya, said his party would submit its federal model to the committee in a couple of days.
The committee discussion on the name, number and delineation of provinces has not begun as most of the parties are yet to formally present their models.
The committee is also yet to decide the proposed special privileges to be given to ethnic groups as the subcommittee formed for the purpose has not finished its work. All the CA committees will have to wrap up their work by the end of Kartik (mid- November) as per the CA calendar, which has already seen amendment for a sixth time. But four CA committees, including the state restructuring committee, have yet to wrap up their work.
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