Nepal's Madhes-based parties boycott meeting on constitution

Nepal's Constituent Assembly (CA) today deliberated the public feedback received on the first draft of the country's new constitution, but Madhes-based parties boycotted the meeting saying their concerns have not been addressed by the major political parties.
The CA members deliberated on the report tabled by Committee on Citizen Relation and Public Opinion Collection.
Committee Chair Pramila Rana tabled the report, a compilation of feedbacks provided by the people on the constitution draft during interactions held in 240 electoral constituencies, and via the Internet and direct mail.
Speaking in the meeting, Nepal Students' Union chairman and lawmaker Ranjit Karna urged to nullify the 16-point pact reached among the major parties as it also breached the Supreme Court decision of not to promulgate the constitution, without deciding demarcating and naming the federal units.

He pointed out that it has failed to address the issues of the Madhesi people, women and other marginalised groups.
Karna complained that two billion rupees has been spent in the name of soliciting public feedback and also claimed that the locals were prohibited from giving feedbacks in some parts of Parsa district.

Later, the Terai Madhesh Democratic Party, Sadbhawana Party, Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal and Terai Madhesh Sadbhawana party boycotted the meeting saying that their issues were not addressed by the major political parties.
Taking part in the discussions on the draft constitution bill, lawmaker Bhim Rawal stressed on promulgating a new constitution by mid-August.

He said the need of promulgating the new constitution even to make the people prosperous, independent and economically sound as the people faced political instability for a long period of time expecting the same.
Similarly, Rastriya Janamorcha chair Chitra Bahadur KC expressed the view that the feedbacks given by the people on the draft constitution should be honoured while finalising the draft.
Similarly, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum lawmaker Jitendra Naryana Dev urged to delineate the boundaries of new provinces before promulgating the constitution.
Though the Madhes-basedparties boycotted, the discussions on the report continued.
After the discussion, the report will be submitted to Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC).

More than 590 lawmakers and 150 officials from the CA Secretariat were appointed for feedback collection.