PATHALAIYA: Tharuhat Joint Stuggle Committee has declared Tharuhat State incorporating 23 districts from Morang in the east to Kanchanpur in the west. The Committee declared the state in a programme organised at Chhatapipara in Bara today.

Ram Narayan Gouro of Parsa has been declared the chief executive of the state.

Addressing the programme, Kishor Kumar Bishwas, assistant coordinator, Indigenous Janajatis Dalit Republican Forum, said they had to declare the state as the State Restructuring Committee of the Constituent Assembly had discriminated the Tharu communities in the Tarai while declaring states.

"As there are separate states for the indigenous people of other regions, there should also be a separate state for the indigenous people of the Tarai," he added.

Stating that the existence of Tharus would be at risk if their rights were not guaranteed, Bishwas also demanded a separate Tharuhat state with rights to self-determination.

He opined that five sub-states could be formed within the Tharuhat state. There was a Tharu state in the Tarai 25,00 years ago too, he reasoned.