Nepal has formed a political panel for resolving the thorny issue of delineation of provinces under the new Constitution to achieve reconciliation with the Madhesis who dismissed the “unilateral” move on Friday as a bid to make Prime Minister K P Oli’s India trip successful.
A cabinet meeting held last evening, ahead of Oli’s maiden India visit, took the decision to constitute an 11-member political committee under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa to recommend solutions for resolving the dispute on provincial boundaries.
Minister for Information and Communications Sherdhan Rai told the media that the political committee has been formed with an aim to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the country.
Rai said the committee would try and work through political consensus among all parties including the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) that had been protesting for months over division of their homeland.
The members of the committee were to be named through political consensus among all parties including UDMF. However, the UDMF said it would not accept the political mechanism formed by the government.
The UDMF, in a statement, said the panel would be unable to address its demands as it was formed “unilaterally”.