KATHMANDU, July 16

The Constituent Assembly secretariat has published and dispatched a few hundred thousand copies of the draft constitution to different parts of the country, but experts feel that won’t be sufficient for people to provide suggestions.

Principal of a local school at Kitchanas VDC of Syangja district Chhabi Rana said over telephone that he had got a copy of the draft constitution but the other villagers had not received any and therefore they were not aware of the details of the draft. “Very few people took part in discussions organised by the VDC secretary on Thursday because the VDC office was very far away,” he added.

Sociologist Krishna Bhattachan alleged that the CA was not interested in seeking suggestions from people and therefore had reduced the time to 15 days after eight years. “At least one copy of the draft should have been provided to each household free of cost,” he said, adding, “This is nothing but a drama.”

Professor Birendra Mishra also said the number of the draft was far from sufficient for the public to form opinions and this was just to give a false impression to the public as the time frame was too short.

The Constituent Assembly Secretariat has published five thousand copies of the draft in the Nepal Gazette, 200,000 copies of the draft as booklets and 100,000 copies of the highlights of the draft and 250,000 copies of the full text in Gorkhapatra daily. The secretariat has also uploaded the text in its website for the public.

Pramila Rana, chairperson of the Committee for Citizen Relations and Public Opinion Collection said they would reach out to all the Village Development Committees before seeking suggestions from the people.

She said most of the CA members would reach their respective election constituencies tomorrow along with the drafts.

Member of the Committee Prem Bahadur Giri said on an average 1,500 copies were sent to each district and the number varied according to population density.

“We have not received any complaint about shortage of the draft but have found that people are very aware and cautious about their rights in the constitution,” he said, adding that access of the media even to far-flung districts of the country could have helped spread awareness among them.

Sale illegal: CA committee

KATHMANDU: The Committee for Citizen Relations and Public Opinion Collection on Thursday clarified that rampant sale of the draft constitution in the market was illegal. Giri said the committee would probe the matter to find out whether copies printed by the CA secretariat were being sold in the market.