Kathmandu, July 10:

President of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Pasang Sherpa today vowed to launch a movement to ensure autonomous federal states for indigenous nationalities.

“I will resign as CA member and take to the streets to ensure autonomous federal states if the parliament failed to do so,” said Sherpa addressing the inaugural session of the third national convention of the Nepal Indigenous Nationality Students’ Federation.

Senior human rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar said indigenous people had been deprived of their rights to information as “very few media disseminate information to them.”

“Everyone has a fundamental right to receive education in their mother tongue,” he said, “and the government should mention this provision in the new constitution.”

Outgoing NINSF president Chandra Bikram Rai urged the federation to initiate movement to ensure the rights of indigenous people in the constitution, as the constitution writing process drew near.

General secretary of the Nepal Students’ Union Manoj Mani Acharya said the Madhesi movement was a move to split the country.

“The disruption of the CA meeting was immoral, as it might hamper the restructuring of the state.”

Sociologist Dr Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan urged the government to protect indigenous people and promote their political, economic, social and cultural values.

Om Gurung, convener of the main organising committee, said some 300 indigenous students would participate in the three-day convention.