Kathmandu, May 8:

The student body of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) has blamed its parent organisation for the low representation of ethnic groups in the Constituent Assembly.

A meeting of the federal council of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities held here today concluded that the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities leadership was responsible for the exclusion of the ethnic groups and have demanded that the leadership should take moral responsibility for this.

NEFIN has also demanded that the government ensure representation of excluded ethnic groups in the constituent assembly through the 26 seats to be nominated by the cabinet.

“We would be forced to launch protest programmes before the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly if our demands were not fulfiled,” said Bhupendra Pulami Magar, general secretary of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities.

The meeting of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities’s federal council has also decided to organise its third national three-day convention in Kathmandu beginning June 21.

Meanwhile, Association of Nepali Indigenous Nationalities Journalists, Kathmandu, has also

expressed its serious concern over the exclusion of 28 ethnic groups in the constituent assembly.