Nepal to table bill to meet Madhesis’ demands in Parliament tomorrow

KATHMANDU: Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda today said the Constitution amendment bill, aimed at meeting the demands of agitating Madhesis and other ethnic groups, will be tabled in the Parliament tomorrow as he urged the opposition parties not to obstruct the house.nnPassing the registered bill was a matter of the Parliament, hence, “nobody should obstruct the Parliament by displaying an undemocratic character”, he told reporters at the Biratnagar Airport, The Himalayan Times reported.nnPrachanda, also the CPN Maoist Centre Chairman, said that if Nepal’s main opposition party CPN-UML ended the obstruction in Parliament, the present deadlock would end.nnHe suspected that there was a big conspiracy to make the Constitution a failure behind the main opposition’s protest, the report said.nnPrachanda said the government would table the Constitution amendment bill in Parliament tomorrow. It was registered at the Parliament Secretariat on November 29.nnHe also made it clear that the government wanted to forge an agreement with the main opposition regarding the issues of the bill — aimed at carving out a new province to meet the demands of agitating Madhesis and other ethnic groups.nnThe registration of the bill has angered Nepal’s main opposition party CPN-UML which has termed the bill as “anti-national” and obstructed the parliament in the past.nnThey said that the resource-rich Province Number five, which earlier constituted hilly and mountainous districts rich in natural resources and cultural heritage, should not be split as envisaged in the bill.nnThe amendment bill aims to accommodate the demands of the agitating Madhesi and ethnic groups that include citizenship and boundary demarcation issues among others.nnRe-demarcation of the provincial boundary and citizenship issue are the two major demands put forth by the agitating Madhesis.nnMadhesis, mostly Indian-origin, launched a six-month-long agitation from September last year to February this year in which more than 50 people were killed.nnThe agitation had also crippled the landlocked country’s economy as supplies from India were blocked.nnSource: Press Trust of India