Nepali Congress presents draft at Constitutional Committee

Kathmandu, Mar 31 (ANI): Nepali Congress along with three other political parties presented their respective concept paper at the meeting of the Constitutional Committee here today.

Presenting the concept paper which is basically a draft of a new Constitution at the meeting held in Singha Durbar, Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala stressed the need to adhere to democratic principles and norms while writing the Constitution.

He said that presidential system as proposed by the Unified CPN (Maoist) will not be acceptable to the party under any circumstances.

"Although presidential system has worked in other countries, it will not be appropriate for a country like Nepal because of its geographical location," he added.

He said the new Constitution should ensure multiparty competition, parliamentary supremacy, independent judiciary including human rights and press freedom.

"We should be careful while adopting federalism as there is always the possibility of the country disintegrating. Therefore, national integration should be the main basis of federalism. The provinces should be carved out only after distributing the resources proportionally and making it sure that they are economically viable," Nepalnews quoted him as saying.

The Nepali Congress concept paper has proposed proportionate representation of provinces in the Upper House, mixed electoral system to elect representatives to the Lower House and Provinces, ensuring at least 33 percent representation of women and proportional representation for indigenous nationalities, Dalits, Madhesis and other marginalized groups

The paper proposes the election of president through electoral colleges comprising parliamentarians at the centre and provinces and the delineation of autonomous provinces on the bases of geopolitical conditions.

It also proposes that foreign policy, monetary policy, national security and national level development projects should fall under the centre's jurisdiction. Provinces and local governments should settle issues related to political, economic, cultural, linguistic rights, agriculture, forest, education, health and employment.

Meanwhile, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the CPN-Marxist Leninist and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party- Nepal have also submitted their respective concept papers to the Constitutional Committee.

The RPP has proposed declaration of Nepal as a Hindu country in the new constitution and underscored the need for the system to elect the executive prime minister from the parliament.

The RPP-N has underscored the need for a public opinion on the structure of religion and federalism.

CPN-ML has suggested the Constitutional Committee to elect the executive prime minister through direct election. (ANI)