Nepal's constitution to be promulgated through 2/3rd majority

Kathmandu: Nepal's new constitution would be promulgated through two-third majority in the Constituent Assembly as it may not be possible to forge consensus among all the parties on key issues like demarcation and naming of the provinces, Deputy Prime Minister said on Thursday.

Prakash Man Singh said the new constitution will be announced only after delineating the boundaries and finalising

names of the federal units, though the major political parties had reached a 16-point deal to promulgate it without naming the provinces and delineating boundaries of federal units.

"The new constitution will be promulgated at the earliest through two third majority votes in the Constituent Assembly as it would not be possible to forge consensus among all the parties on the key issues of the constitution," he said.

The major political parties had agreed in June to hand over the responsibility of delineating and naming the states to a commission which would finalise the two issues within six months once the statue of the constitution is promulgated.

These two points are among the major demands of the Madhesi parties that have launched agitation, seeking more rights and representation to the marginalised communities including Madhesis, Dalits, ethnic groups and women. They have even boycotted the constitution drafting process.

Nepal needs to promulgate the new constitution soon as it would help the country attain political stability, which is essential for moving forward on the path of economic development and prosperity, Singh said.

"Once the constitution is in place and the country attains political stability, we can generate huge amount of hydropower by utilising our immense potentiality so that we could not only revolutionise agricultural sector by providing irrigation facilities to the farmers but can also sell electricity to the neighbouring countries mainly India," he said.

Singh called on the private sector to invest more in agriculture sector and employ scientific technology so that the country could export agricultural products instead of importing them mainly from neighbouring India.

Nepal's Drafting Committee had endorsed the first draft of the long-pending constitution for the first time on June 29.

The four major parties representing more than 90 per cent seats of the CA had reached the landmark agreement on June 8 in the wake of the April 25 devastating earthquake.