KATHMANDU, August 3

Top leaders of political parties on Monday claimed that they were working on demarcating the federal units and they were determined to deliver the new constitution with boundaries even if they needed to go beyond the self-imposed deadline of August 17 to promulgate the constitution. They said they should be able to deliver the new constitution by August 24.

“We hope that we will be able to reach a consensus on the issue by tomorrow evening. We have not deviated from the spirit of 16-point agreement,” said Unified CPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal after the meeting of the Special Committee of the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee held this morning at the hall of State Affairs Committee of Parliament Secretariat in Singha Durbar.

NC leader Purna Bahadur Khadka said the parties were holding talks on six-, seven- and eight-state models and are determined to settle the demarcation issue within a few days.

After the parties failed to settle the issue of boundaries of five Tarai-based districts — Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Kailali and Kanchanpur — the four parties – Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Unified CPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic — had decided to let a federal commission settle the issue of boundaries later. However, the parties have been under pressure to deliver the constitution with boundaries of states.

Sources close to CPDCC Chairman Baburam Bhattarai said the special committee headed by him was working rigorously to demarcate the boundaries of the federal units and it might take them another four-five days to settle the issue.

Talking to mediapersons, Bhattarai said, “Once the issue of boundaries is settled, it will not take much time to settle other issues. We are still determined to deliver new statute by August 17,” he said.

Parties are yet to agree on the language of secularism, citizenship, fundamental rights and some other contentious issues.

After the top leaders’ meeting in the morning, second-rung leaders discussed alternatives to demarcate the federal units till evening.

“We have discussed various alternatives. Nothing concrete has been agreed upon yet. We will resume our meeting tomorrow morning,” said NC leader Ramchandra Paudel.

UML Vice-chairman Bhim Rawal said on Monday’s meeting came close to consensus on some issues but the issue of boundaries was still being debated.