CPN-UML against separating Terai, hills in Nepal

The CPN-UML today said it is opposed to re-demarcation of Nepal's federal provinces under which the country's hilly regions would be entirely separated from the southern Terai plains as demanded by Madhesi parties.
Even if the demand of the Indian-origin Madhesis to divide the Terai plains into two provinces is considered, the hilly regions and southern plains still cannot be totally separated from each other, said CPN-UML secretary Pradeep Gyawali.
Another CPN-UML secretary Bhim Acharya said his party would not agree on dividing the entire Madhes region into two provinces at any cost.
Former minister Acharya said the party was also against entirely separating hill provinces from the Terai districts.

"This is our bottom line. The work of strangling 95 per cent people of the nation by two to four per cent of people supported by foreign forces will not be tolerated," he said.
He said that agreements earlier signed with various Madhesi parties and alliances could not be implemented as they were contradictory to each other.

The Madhesi parties are demanding implementation of agreements they had signed with previous governments.
Madhesis, Indian-origin inhabitants of Nepal's Terai region, are protesting against division of their ancestral homeland into seven provinces under the new Constitution.
Acharya said CPN-UML would extend support to the Constitution amendment bill of the previous Nepali Congress-led government, provided the agitating parties would withdraw their protests thereafter.

The Nepali Congress' Constitution amendment bill would address at least two demands of the Madhesi parties - proportionate representation and allocation of Parliament seats on the basis of population.
Acharya also claimed that 90 per cent of people in the Terai districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari are against the Madhesi parties' demands that their districts be included in a province separated from the hilly regions.
He challenged the Madhesi parties to hold a referendum to prove that their demands are backed by the people.
The CPN-UML is part of the ruling coalition which also includes the UCPN-Maoist, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic.