Public feedback in CA

The report on public feedback on the draft constitution has been tabled in a Constituent Assembly (CA) meeting on Tuesday.

Pramila Rana, Chair of the CA's Citizen Relations and Public Opinion Collection Committee, submitted the report to the CA Chair Subhas Nembang despite sloganeering by Madhesi and Janjati lawmakers.

The 94-page report contains 186,946 suggestions collected directly from people and through website, email, post office and fax. The CA members had reached their constituencies to seek public feedback on the draft. As many as 184,674 people had participated in programs organised to collect public feedback.

People have mostly favoured directly elected executive, religious freedom, demarcation of federal provinces before the constitution and citizenship either in the name of father or mother.

The CA will start deliberation on the report from Wednesday and forward it to its Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC). The CPDCC will choose suggestions to be incorporated in the draft constitution.

The four political parties have already decided to stick to the 16-point deal, hinting at possibility that the demand for directly-elected executive will not be addressed. The draft constitution has adopted the Westminster system of governance.

However, some top political parties have hinted that the more accurate Nepali word for secularism will be used and it will be defined as religious freedom.The CA has already published its schedule to promulgate the new constitution by mid August.