DHANGADHI: Harka Thapa Magar from Simchaur-4 Doti has heard on radio that the preliminary draft of new constitution has been distributed in every district for public opinion. However, he does not know what is actually written in that draft of new constitution.

Neither any copy of the draft, nor any lawmaker has arrived in his village, informed Magar

This story, perhaps, is similar to most of the remote VDCs in various districts of the Far-Western Region. Locals there have been far away from the draft.

It is learnt that lawmakers are organising an interaction programme in one place of each constituency. Public, however, said they have to walk two to four days to reach the destination to give their views.

For example, the interaction programme for the people of Doti Consitutency-2 is taking place in Budar of the district on July 21, which takes four days to reach from Simchaur, informed Magar

Magar, thus, blamed that the programme is just a formality.

Not only hilly districts, but also the people of well-facilitated districts like Kailali are also yet to get the draft of new constitution.

Doti’s Chief District Officer, Manohar Prasad Khanal, informed that copies of the draft are being distributed through Village Development Committee (VDC) Secretaries in every VDC. The problem surfaced due to insufficient copies of the draft, he maintained.

Only 10 copies of draft have been sent to each VDC of Doti while five to 10 copies of draft are provided in each VDC of Achham and Bajhang districts.

VDC Secretaries, on the other hand, claim that a single person has to work for more than two VDCs, making it impossible to distribute the drafts effectively.

According to Kailali Chief District Officer, Ram Kumar Shrestha, they have distributed 20 to 25 copies of the draft in each VDC of the district.

Shrestha added that insufficient copies of draft and lack of time have caused the problem.

Satyaraj Rawal of Chaudhari VDC in Achham district informed there is no any draft in locals of his village.

Lawmaker Bir Bahadur Balayar, who is in Doti to collect feedback, informed suggestions can be collected entirely only after the draft reaches people.

Blayar further informed he has urged the CDO and the Local Development Officer to distribute drafts in each VDC sufficiently.