Kathmandu, July 16 :

Leaders of six major political parties today came up with a joint concept paper on restructuring and transformation of state.

The paper was prepared jointly by Jhalanath Khanal of CPN-UML, Dhruba Bahadur Pradan of Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Narahari Acharya of Nepali Congress, Pari Thapa of Jana Morcha Nepal, Minendra Rijal of Nepali Congress-Democratic and Sarita Giri of Nepal Sadbhavana Party - Anandi Devi.

The concept paper, made public today, deals mainly with lessons learnt from the past, state structure and ruling mechanism, transformation and change in state mechanism, change in electoral process, internal democracy in political parties and constituent assembly: people’s participation in state transformation.

“Indeed, it is possible to come up with joint ideas despite the fact that we belong to different parties and ideologies,” said Narahari Acharya of NC.

It was difficult to work together because we were from different backgrounds, but we learned from other members and were also influenced by their rational logics, he said. “This is our common agenda on the kind of new Nepal we anticipate,” he said. Pari Thapa of JMN said the concept paper was a joint-document of ideologies of six parties and was prepared through long discussions. “We have developed a brain-storming culture in our parties,” he claimed. Dr Minendra Rijal of NC-D said that the document was a reply to the tradition of political parties, in which most leaders are guided by belief that they know better than anybody else. In the paper, the leaders have suggested the nation should be restructured into differet states, on the basis of population, geography, language, economic relation and communal-cultural identity. The regions will prepare their policies, plans and programmes, except on foreign affairs, defence and monetary system.