Kathmandu, August 16

Nepali Congress leader and Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Bimalendra Nidhi today wrote a letter to NC President and Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, expressing his dissatisfaction over constitutional issues, particularly federalism, election constituencies and citizenship.

Nidhi sent copies of the letter to Constituent Assembly Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang, chiefs of the NC, CPN-UML, UCPN-M, Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic and other top leaders of the three major parties.

Nidhi stated in the letter that the 165 election constituencies as demarcated in the draft constitution should be delineated by following the principles applied to delineate 240 constituencies in the past and the number of constituencies should be divided by the number of provinces to determine the average number of constituencies in a province. Nidhi said the remaining constituencies could be put into provinces of the mountains, hills and the Tarai giving the people of such constituencies the option to choose any of the adjoining provinces.

Nidhi said power should be distributed among the sovereign people vertically and horizontally.

“The intention of people of a particular province should not be doubted while delineating the boundaries of the provinces and preparing the lists of powers,” he stated in the letter. Nidhi said federal democratic system was the best system in the world to maintain the longevity of the territorial integrity of the nation. “Delineation of boundaries and preparation of power lists should be done with a liberal mind,” he said, adding, “Residual powers should preferably rest with the lower bodies.”

Nidhi demanded that the principles applied to carve out 240 constituencies in the Interim Constitution should be retained in the new constitution otherwise election constituencies proportional to the population in the Tarai, hills and mountains would not be ensured.

He said Interim Constitution’s citizenship provisions should be retained and there should be no discrimination between citizens. The issue of naturalisation of foreign women married to Nepali men should not be taken lightly and these women should rather be given citizenship by descent through marriage, Nidhi argued.

He said the word ‘Nepali origin’ in the citizenship clause used for conferring citizenship on non-resident Nepalis could lead to discrimination and hence it should be replaced with just ‘Nepali’.

Inclusion of residents of Karnali, Dalits, women, Janajatis, Madhesis, Muslims and minorities in executive, legislature, judiciary and other constitutional bodies must be ensured in the constitution, he said and added that inclusion should be ensured in both FPTP and PR elections.

Minister’s concerns

• There should be equal number of constituencies in all provinces
• If there are more constituencies in a province than the average, people should have the option to join the adjoining province
• Interim constitution’s provision to delineate constituencies should be retained
• Naturalised citizens should not be barred from holding constitutional posts