KATHMANDU: An informal meeting of the three major parties -- UCPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML -- today discussed contentious issues contained by all thematic committee reports presented to the full House of the Constituent Assembly.

Parliamentary party leaders, deputy leaders and chief whips of the parties have formed an informal mechanism to sort out the differences that cropped up in the 11 thematic committees. According to Dev Prasad Gurung, one of the Maoist leaders attending today's deliberation, the meeting discussed the report of the CA committee on Constitutional Bodies, which has recommended 64 such bodies in the new constitution. Many believe that the recommended constitutional bodies are too many to handle and some of them may encroach upon the jurisdiction of other commissions.