Nepal to deliver constitution on time: PM

Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala Saturday urged people not to doubt their ability to launch a new constitution, saying the country will formulate a new constitution before Jan 22, 2015.

The Jan 22, 2015 is the deadline set by Nepal's political parties to deliver the new constitution institutionalising the country as a federal democratic republic country, Xinhua reported.

While attending the celebration ceremony of the 20th convocation day of Kathmandu University in Dhulikhel, about 30 km east of capital Kathmandu, Koirala said his party Nepali Congress (NC) has proposed just seven provinces in the new federal setup considering financial burden to be caused by creation of " too many" provinces.

"We were for even less than seven provinces," he said, "But, we had to settle down on seven in the course of compromising with other political parties."

CPN-UML, Nepal's second largest party, has also agreed on the NC's proposal. But, the UCPN (Maoist), which spearheaded a decade- long war against the state, has stood against the joint proposal by the NC and the CPN-UML.

The UCPN (Maoist), which is now leading an alliance of 22 fringe parties, is of the view that there should be more provinces to liberate the oppressed and marginalised communities.

Koirala, also chancellor of Kathmandu University, congratulated fresh graduates of the university and urged them to play constructive role on national development.