Mangladevi Gurung of Chame-5 in Manang district has got a copy of the draft. She is preparing to attend a public consultation programme scheduled to be held at the district headquarters Chame on Monday.

“I am going through the document. There are some provisions that I have confusions over,” she said. “If the government listens, I’ll express them at the programme.” Gurung, who operates a hotel, is also actively involved in publicising the matter locally.

Several other people said they have received the draft. Yangdung Gurung of Pisang said he is reading the blueprint for the new constitution. “The VDC secretary sent me the document,” he said. VDC Secretary Neelkantha Poudel said he has sent the constitution draft to all the houses in Pisang and Chame. According to Assistant CDO Ram Hari Sharma, 2,000 copies had arrived in the district for 1,400 households there. UCPN (Maoist) lawmaker Dhaniram Poudel reached Chame on Friday for collecting people’s feedback on the constitution draft.

A team of lawmakers have reached Baitadi district to gather people’s views on the draft. CA members Nar Bahadur Chand, Damnodar Bhandari and Dhana Pahari reached Baitadi on Friday via a helicopter. They said they have already begun collecting opinions and a formal programme is scheduled to be held at the district headquarters and Patan on July 20 and 21.

Teams led by VDC secretaries would be deployed to collect views from villages on Saturday and Sunday. In Kanchanpur, 11 lawmakers reached Mahendranagar for the purpose. Four interaction centres have been designated in the district. Eight lawmakers reached Bardiya district to gather public opinion on the constitution draft. They said collecting views had been difficult as farmers are busy at their farms.

Demo against process

JANAKPUR: Terming the preliminary draft of the constitution as anti-Madhes, the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha demonstrated in Janakpur on Friday.

A rally taken out from Railway Station went through the city and ended in a corner meet at Janaki Chowk.

The rally was led by Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party Vice-chair Brishesh Chanda Lal and lawmakers Bijay Kumar Singh and Madhavi Rani Shah. There were other leaders from the Morcha. The protesters said a statute without delineation of provinces is unacceptable to them. The alliance leaders warned of disrupting programmes scheduled for July 20 and 21 to gather people’s views on the draft. TMLP District Chairman Parmeshwar Shah said there was no need to hold

consultations on the “anti-Madhes” draft.

(With inputs from our district correspondents)