NC raps 14 states model

KATHMANDU, Jan 31: Nepali Congress has strongly criticized the 14 states model proposed by the CA Committee on State Restructuring and Distribution of State Powers.



Senior NC leaders have termed the Maoist-backed 14 states model as unacceptable. [break]



NC Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel claimed that the model was based on very weak foundation and is philosophically wrong.



"From the way the federal model has been proposed in the name of majority of the committee, it is clear that there is the intention to impose dictatorship. It is a rape of the democratic system. It is a conspiracy against federalism," Poudel said during deliberations on the 14 states model at the CA on Sunday.



The 14 states model was passed by a simple majority of the 43-member committee that was entrusted with delineating, naming and fixing the number of provinces. All the NC members in the committee had stood against the model. They were for forwarding a six states model along with the 14 states to the CA plenum.




Poudel claimed that majority of the people in the country would not accept the model as that does not intend to uplift the real downtrodden dalit communities and minorities. He said the model is the outcome of the "wrong propaganda and commitment made by the UCPN (Maoist) in the past".



He said states should be created incorporating mixed identity of various castes, communities and religious as well as linguistic groups. "We need to create multilingual, multicultural and multi-religious provinces while ensuring that all the states would be economically sustainable," he said.



Poudel, who strongly advocated for forming a state restructuring commission, also criticized the proposed provision of giving political preferential rights to the largest community in the provinces. Most of the NC and CPN-UML members participating in the deliberations supported the idea of forming a commission for the purpose.

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