3 min readKathmanduOct 4, 2016 08:48 PM IST
First published on: Oct 4, 2016 at 08:48 PM IST
The minority, mostly of Indian-origin, has led months-long violent protest seeking better representation in the Parliament and the federal structure of the Constitution that divides their ancestral homeland.
Nepal will have lasting peace only if the Constitution is amended by guaranteeing the rights of all the sections of the society, including the Madhesis, a
senior minister said on Tuesday.
“Lasting peace cannot be established in the country unless the problem related to the Constitution is resolved,” said Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Sita Devi Yadav, who is also the treasurer of the ruling Nepali Congress Party.
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Speaking at an interaction programme organised by the local peace committee in her home district Siraha in southern Nepal, Yadav underlined the need to amend the Constitution to address the demands raised by the Madhesis, indigenous communities and ethnic groups.
Amendment of the Constitution to redraw the provincial boundary of the country is the key demand of the agitating Madhesi parties. The minority, mostly of Indian-origin, has led months-long violent protest seeking better representation in the Parliament and the federal structure of the Constitution that divides their ancestral homeland.
Yadav pointed out that distribution of citizenship certificates by guaranteeing equal rights to all the communities, delineating provincial and local boundary on the basis of population and justifiable representation of all the ethnic groups including the Madhesis in all the administrative mechanisms of the government on the basis of population should be incorporated in the Constitution.
She also expressed the government’s commitment that the victims of armed conflict and the people injured in the Madhes agitation will be provided due compensation as per the provision of the law.
Meanwhile, former prime minister and coordinator of Naya Shakti Party Baburam Bhattarai today insisted on the need for amending the Constitution without any further delay.
Speaking at an interaction in Inaruwa of southern Nepal, Bhattarai said that the Constitution amendment was essential to institutionalise secularism, democracy and federal republic, the major achievements of the peoples movement of 2006.
The statute should be amended to achieve a lasting peace in the country, he pointed out.
The minority, mostly of Indian-origin, has led months-long violent protest seeking better representation in the Parliament and the federal structure of the Constitution that divides their ancestral homeland.
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