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NCP lower committees: Merger process ‘picks up pace’
Having finalised party statute and regulations, Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders have said the process for merging lower committees and sister wings will expedite.Having finalised party statute and regulations, Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders have said the process for merging lower committees and sister wings will expedite.
Due to the lack of clear guidance for the merger process, the lower committees and sister wings have been in confusion over drafting of statutes of unified bodies.
In a circular issued on May 31, the NCP had urged all its 22 sister wings to submit proposals on the central leadership after drafting their respective statutes within 15 days by forming a four-member task force for each body.
At the time of the merger announcement of the two parties on May 17, top NCP leaders had promised to unify all the lower committees within three months.
Most leaders of the NCP lower committees and sister wings said the merger process would be finalised after the receive party’s statute and regulations. NCP General Secretary Bishnu Poudel said the printed version of the party’s statute and regulation would be distributed to all the lower committees within a few days.
The NCP Standing Committee had formed a separate three-member task force to finalise the party statute and regulation after its members called for expansion of the lower committees to incorporate the aspiring leaders of both the parties.
After the recent Standing Committee meeting endorsed the documents, the party secretariat is putting final touches to them before sending them for printing.
Leader Mani Thapa, who is responsible for the unification of youth and cultural wings of the two parties, said they have almost completed their job. “After receiving the party’s statute and regulations we will finalise the merger process,” he said. However, the merger process of the powerful workers’ wings of the two parties may take at least a year owing to their legal status and enormous size.
The merger of the Maoist Centre-affiliated All Nepal Trade Union Federation and the UML-affiliated General Federation of Nepali Trade Unions (Gefont) remains a big challenge facing the party.
“As we are the leading trade unions of the country, it may take at least a year to complete the merger process,” said Ganesh Regmi, chairman of Antuf.
The first meeting of the 11-member Antuf-Gefont Unification Coordination Committee on Sunday decided to start the merger process after receiving the guidelines from the party co-chairmen.
A gathering of the senior cadres of both the trade unions is expected on the third week of July.