Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Ramesh Lekhak has said that the government is committed to addressing the concerns raised by the agitating forces by amending the constitution. 

“We are already in the process to amend the constitution to address the legitimate demands put forth by the Madhesi and Janajati forces. Our task should be completed within a few weeks,” said Lekhak, also a Nepali Congress (NC) leader, but stopped short of making it clear where the talks with the agitating forces have reached. 

Lekhak also reiterated that the coalition between the CPN (Maoist Centre) and NC was formed with the motive of taking the disgruntled sections of society on board thorough statute amendment. 

Stating that the government was determined to work for broader acceptance of the constitution, Minister Lekhak said, “After the statute amendment, the government will look towards holding three layers of polls as part of the constitution implementation process.” 

As per the constitutional provision, the country needs to hold local, provincial and federal polls by January 2018. 

As the government plans to hold local polls by March-April next year, the Local Level Restructuring Commission, formed to determine the number and boundaries of local units, has until mid-November to submit its report.

The agitating forces have reservations about state demarcation, citizenship issues, official language of provinces and representation in the Upper House. 

Lekhak added that the government, three major forces—Maoist Centre, NC and CPN-UML—and other small parties have discussed the issues raised by the Madhes and Janajati forces several times and that he believed the constitution would be amended by taking all the forces into confidence.

The NC’s Central Working Committee, which concluded its meeting on Tuesday, 

has also decided to take the lead in the statute amendment process. 

“We stand by our previous pledge to amend the statute to address the concerns raised by the Madhesi, Tharu, Adivasi and Janajati communities before holding the three layers of polls. The Nepali Congress will take a lead in holding talks with the disgruntled forces, the main opposition and all other parties in Parliament,” read a press statement issued by the NC. 

The Congress has also urged the LLRC to consider the suggestions given by the major political forces while carving out local units and requested the commission to speed up work to ensure that its final report is submitted by mid-November. The LLRC has decided to keep the number of local units (village and municipal councils) to a maximum of 744.