Amendment proposal against country: UML

Kathmandu, November 20

The CPN-UML today said that the constitution amendment proposal prepared by the government was not in the country’s interest. Hence it would not be acceptable.

The standing committee meeting of the main opposition party today concluded that the constitution amendment bill to change boundaries of federal provinces and citizenship provisions would have long term consequences.

In a recent meeting of the big three parties, they had agreed to hold another meeting on Monday.

“We concluded that the constitution amendment bill to change provisions relating to the boundaries of provinces and citizenship was not in the nation’s interest,” said UML Secretary Pradeep Gyawali.

He said the UML would present the party’s official view in the three parties’ talks tomorrow.

According to Gyawali, the meeting also concluded that the government was not serious about implementing the constitution. “Instead of working to implement the constitution, the government was misleading the public by raising the constitution amendment issue,” said Gyawali. He further said

that the UML was not against amendment in principle and it had never said that the statute could not be amended.

Another UML Secretary Gokarna Bista said that the constitution could not be amended to appease some people. “We have said that there should be strong reasons and necessity for the amendment, which the government and ruling parties cannot show,” said Bista.

The UML has demanded that the government bring a clear roadmap for implementing the constitution.

The party has also asked the government to table election related bills in the Parliament and declare the election date. Three types of elections should be held before January 22,2018 to implement the constitution.