KATHMANDU: Eight Tharu organisations today said they will push for multiple Pradeshes in the Tarai, not the one or two as has been demanded by some "so-called Madhes-based parties".

A single Madhes has been demanded so that the entire Tarai -Madhes can be ruled by only a section of Madhesi leaders, a press statement issued by the organisations said today. The organisations -- Tharu Kalyankarini Sabha, Tharuhat Joint Struggle Committee, Nepal Democratic Tharu Association, Nepal Autonomous Tharu Association, National Democratic Tharu Association, Tharu Students' Society, Tharu Youth Sabha and Tharu Women Sabha -- have also announced a general strike in the plains on March 14 to push for their agenda of multiple Pradeshes in the plains, which have almost half the country's population.

"We do not recognise a single Tarai Pradesh, we do not know two Tarai Pradesh, will not give up the demand of multiple Tarai Pradeshes," the eight organisations said in the statement.

They said the hill and mountain regions have been proposed12 pradeshes by the Constituent Assembly Committee on State Restructuring and Distribution of State Power. It means that the people of the hilly regions will enjoy immense facilities from the 12 federal units and the related administrative institutions.

However, the Pradesh will have to rely only on the two Pradeshes, if it is accepted as suggested by the state restructuring committee, the statement said, adding that it was unjustifiable to carve out only two Pradeshes for almost half the population of the country.

It was stated that only a handful of leaders of the Tarai-Madhes will enjoy political power if the entire region was carved into two Pradeshes and the public would suffer in the name of federalism. The demand of a single Pradesh in the plain region intends to impose a feudal rule even after the country goes for a federal structure, the statement said.