Kathmandu, May 17:

Various Janajati organisations, including the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), today took out protest rallies from different parts of the Valley, demanding the establishment of a federal republican system. The participants of the rallies converged into a mass meeting at Basantapur.

Civil society members, Dalits and disabled people also took part in the rallies, expressing their solidarity to the demands of the indigenous nationalities.

The participants shouted slogans against the king and monarchy.

Addressing the mass meeting, leader of the civil society Devendra Raj Pandey said the people had not participated in the April movement just to take the eight-party leaders to the government but to establish federal republican system in the country. NEFIN president Pasang Sherpa said the constituent assembly polls conducted without bringing the indigenous nationalities, Dalits, Madhesis, disabled people and other disadvantaged groups to the mainstream would be incomplete and unacceptable.

“Therefore, the government should first address our demands by amending the interim constitution and opting the proportional election system.”