Kathmandu, December 20:

With the Constituent Assembly already publishing its business schedule, major political parties seem to be ready to deal with the most complicated issue of federalism with utmost care.

This was reflected in a workshop attended by representatives of major political parties here today. In the workshop, Dr Alok K Bohara, Professor at the University of New Mexico, USA, presented a paper on ‘Cooperative Federal Structure, a Workable Political-economy Approach for a New Nepal’ through video-conferencing. Through his paper, Dr Bohara suggested carving out four provinces: Koshi, Kathmandu or Bagmati, Gandaki and Karnali.

Commenting on his paper, CPN-Maoist leader Dinanath Sharma said his party was in favour of giving right of self determination to the provinces. He warned that a conflict could continue to dog the nation if the blueprint of federalism failed to understand the psychology of the populace and their aspirations. Sharma said his party had given the names of some provinces in order to recognise the identity of dominating ethnic group of the region.

CPN-UML leader Shankar Pokharel said north-south demarcation of geography couldn’t prove to be practical in the past. “Provinces can not be carved out without addressing the issue of individual liberty. Geographical similarity alone cannot form the basis of a province,” he said, adding that the provinces should be carved out taking into account geography, ethnicity, culture, linguistic identity, economic viability and natural resources.

Dr Minendra Rijal of the Nepali Congress suggested taking into account the identity, culture and religion of people while carving out the provinces. Dr Rijal added that Madhesis were not in favour of ‘One Madhes, One Pradesh’, saying that the Madhesi parties failed to bag most votes across the Madhes. “But Madhesis say they are being considered as second class citizens. We need to address this,” he said. He also urged the people to give up caste or ethnicity-oriented mentality.

Prof Bal Krishna Mabuhang said Dr Bohara’s paper failed to reflect the basic principle

of federalism — shared rule (at the centre) and self rule (at the local levels) concept of federalism.

Dr Bohara’s paper states that the provinces should not be carved out along the line of ethnicity.

“Narrowly defined ethnocentric federal divisions are more likely to incite resource conflicts in the future,” he stated, adding that there have been numerous examples of such conflicts in many countries, including Zimbabwe, Angola, Chiapas, Congo, Indonesia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia.

Dr Bohora has suggested four layers of government — centre, state, regions and villages — in federal Nepal.