CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT TABLED IN NEPAL PARLIAMENT

NEW DELHI: The Nepal govern ment on Tuesday approved a constitution amendment that will partially address the griev ances of Madhesis and tabled the proposal in parliament.

The proposal comes in the backdrop of the deep politica polarisation in Nepal over the past year, which had affected both Kathmandu-tarai and Nepal-india ties. Ever since the constitution was promulgated in September 2015, Madhesis o the southern plains had been protesting, demanding a revi sion in federal boundaries and greater political representation

India had urged Nepali politi cal leaders to take all sections o society on board. When a new government led by Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Daha ‘Prachanda’ took over power in August, it promised to address these demands.

But while it will get regis tered, the passage of the amend ment requires a two-thirds majority. With the main opposi tion, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Lenin ist) led by K P Oli opposing the amendment, this will be diffi cult - though not impossible - to achieve.

THE FEDERAL REVISION

The amendment proposal, final ised in the Prime Ministeria residence in Kathmandu, deals with four broad issues. The most contentious issue is of fed eral demarcation. The constitu tion had created a single plains only unit in the eastern Tara with eight districts, and merged the remaining districts of the plains with the hills. Madhesis want a complete demerger of the hills and the plains as they believe this would allow them to exercise a degree of self rule They wanted two broad units in the Tarai region.

The amendment proposes to hive off hill districts and create a Tarai-only unit of six districts in western plains, stretching from the district of Nawalparas