POKHARA: Minister for Industries Asthalaxmi Shakya on Saturday said that the new constitution would be drafted within the stipulated deadline. Inaugurating the 38 central conference of the Nepal Leprosy Elimination Association (NLEA) here, she urged all sectors to cooperate to draft the constitution within the deadline.

"The political parties should be united to stabilise the federal democratic republic by achieving the task of drafting the new constitution within the given deadline," she said. Saying that discrimination still existed in the society, she emphasised the need to end discrimination for the positive transformation of society and culture. She also stressed the need of changing the people's discriminatory tendency of viewing leprosy patients. Dr Sudha Sharma, secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population informed that 1.06 per cent of Nepalis are suffering from leprosy. NLEA general secretary Ram Kumar Shrestha also spoke on the occasion.