Valley
‘Address concerns of Janajatis in statute’
Janajati lawmakers from CPN-UML submitted a memorandum to Parliamentary Party leader and Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Thursday, appealing the party leadership to address their demands in the new constitution.Janajati lawmakers from CPN-UML submitted a memorandum to Parliamentary Party leader and Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Thursday, appealing the party leadership to address their demands in the new constitution.
Their demands include proportional representation of Janajatis in all state mechanisms, formation of a constitutional commission to look after the issues of Janajatis, allocation of Janajati share in the 33 percent women quota and official language status to indigenous dialects.
“We have requested the party leadership to incorporate our concerns in the revised draft of the constitution before the final charter is promulgated,” said Gokul Gharti, a Janajati lawmaker from UML.
The UML leadership has instructed the party lawmakers against registering individual amendment proposal on the draft constitution.
The UML Janajati lawmakers, however, said that they will register amendment proposal with the support of fellow Janajati lawmakers from other parties if their own party does not address their demands.
They have already started consultation with the Janajati lawmakers from other parties.
Recently, a delegation of cross-party Janajati lawmakers, including UML’s Pemba Bhote and Nepali Congress’s Nagendra Kumal, also notified about their demands to Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, among others.
There are 191 lawmakers members in the Constituent Assembly who represent various ethnic communities. All of them more or less have similar set of demands to secure rights and representation of Janajatis through the new constitution.
UML Janajati lawmakers appeal party leadership to constitutionally guarantee rights and representation of all ethnic groups