DHANGADI, July 20

Feedback collection centres in the far-west region have rung loud with the call for an intact far-west region.

Majority of participants in the feedback collection programmes in all nine districts of the region demanded that the region be kept intact in the new federal set up.

According to CA member Bir Bahadur Balayar, most of the participants in Doti have sought promulgation of a full-fledged constitution with demarcation of states.

“They said they are ready to accept any name for the region but not a split of the region in the name of federalism,” Balayar said.

“While most of them (the participants) called for keeping the region intact while federating it, the next largest group wanted the old Hindu state identity, with still a significant number of the people in favour of reducing the number of federal states,” said UML CA member Prem Bahadur Alemagar, who came to sound out people’s opinion over the draft of the constitution.

For the Tharu populace in Kailali and Kanchanpur, the participants suggested that the community be granted special rights in the intact far-west state instead of a separate state.

Meanwhile, Rastriya Prajantantra Party-Nepal on Monday staged rallies in Dhangadi pitching for a single far-west and Hindu state identity. Leaders of the party also recommended that a referendum be held to determine whether or not to keep a secular state identity.

Though leaders and cadres of select parties who were against the 16-point deal that facilitated the statute draft tried to obstruct the feedback collection programme in Dhangadi on Monday, the presence of the security personnel prevented them.