Nepal late Thursday announced plans to establish a committee to review disputed provisions within the country's new constitution which sparked deadly protests and a crippling border blockade that ended earlier this month. Demonstrators belonging to southern Nepal's Madhesi ethnic minority had obstructed a major trade route since September to protest the new charter, sparking debilitating shortages of fuel and other vital supplies across the landlocked Himalayan nation.
More than 50 people have died in clashes between police and Madhesi protesters, who say the federal state borders laid out in the constitution will limit their representation in parliament. "The cabinet has decided to form a political committee... an 11-member committee (which) will study the demarcation of federal states in the constitution," Som Prasad Pandey, the Minister of Industry, told AFP.
"The committee will present its recommendations within three months," Pandey added. The decision comes on the eve of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli's trip to India, his first foreign visit since becoming premier in October, as he seeks to repair strained ties with New Delhi, which has criticised the charter and urged dialogue with the Madhesis. But protesting parties said they would not back the new committee without a prior commitment to revise internal borders. In an effort to end the deadlock, parliament last month amended the constitution to increase the Madhesi presence in government bodies through proportional representation.
Comments
Comments are closed.