The parties will still have some room for forging consensus on disputed issues before actual voting begins. They can use alternative proposals of their members to reach agreement. The CA will then be able to deliver the statute by September 17

• Subas Nembang, CA Chairman

Kathmandu, September 5

The Constituent Assembly secretariat has received 56 proposals from various parties and CA members seeking amendment on 1,300 provisions on the “Revised Bill” of the new constitution.

The CA will have to settle all the proposed provisions through separate voting one by one.

Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN-M today registered a joint proposal seeking amendments on 75 provisions. They sought to include Baglung, which was divided into provinces 4 and 5 earlier in province-4. The parties have not sought any other amendment on the seven-province model.

To address the concerns of various agitating groups, the amendment proposal has included four more commissions – Commission on Indigenous Nationalities, Madhesi Commission, Tharu Commission and Muslim Commission.

They proposed to include “secularism” with definition as “it will mean protection of Sanatan religion and culture and religious and cultural freedom”. Population will get priority in delineation of election constituencies over geography, as per their proposal. Headquarters of provinces will be decided by two-third majority of the provincial assembly. The president will mobilise Nepali Army as per recommendation of the Cabinet, the proposal said.

A five-member constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice comprising four justices designated by the Chief Justice on the recommendation of the Judicial Council will replace the provision of Constitutional Court, according to the proposal.

Under the provision of Right to Justice of Article 42(1), they sought to add “financially disadvantaged Khas Arya” will be allowed to enjoy the right of participation in state bodies on the basis of principle of inclusion. However, they have not sought to add “proportional inclusion”. They also did not include threshold for representation under the PR system. They did not seek any amendment on the citizenship issue.

NC’s Shekhar Koirala, Arjun Narsingh KC, three Dalit members Man Bahadur Bishwakarma, Min Bishwakarma and Jiban Pariyar and Shankar Bhandari have registered three separate proposals defying the party’s instruction not to register separate proposal. KC and Bhandari have sought to remove secularism.

CPN-UML members and almost all Madhes based parties have not registered amendment proposals.