The CC is the ninth of the eleven thematic committees to submit draft reports in the full house of the CA. Other two committees -- committee on system of governance and the committee on state restructuring and sharing of state power -- are yet to prepare their preliminary draft reports. [break]
The CC, which is most important committee in terms of its dual responsibility of preparing the thematic report as well as of preparing an integrated report by incorporating reports of all the eleven thematic committees, has unfortunately remained the most controversial.
After failing to take decisions on the provisions to be incorporated in the report, the committee had to decide by vote on 98 clauses that remained contentious among the political parties.
In the voting on December 26, a majority of the agenda items supported by the largest party UCPN (Maoist) were defeated by the alliance of the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML and other political parties.
A proposal by the Maoists and others to change national flag failed to garner majority support while the provision to remove all the national emblems was passed by majority in the 64-member committee.
The Maoist proposal to put the words “people´s war” in the preamble was in the minority while the proposal to incorporate the words “Madhes movement” received a majority of votes. The committee voted press freedom and pluralism as non-amendable provisions.
Heads of the three largest parties -- Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, NC President Girija Prasad Koirala and CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal -- agreed to abstain from voting.
However, the function organized to hand over the report to CA Chairman Subas Nembang remained more controversial as the NC and UML decided not to attend the function raising question over Acharya´s decision to allow Maoist to register differing views in the draft even after the given deadline had expired.
The committee held 79 meetings for 205 hours before finalizing the report. “Still we are open to incorporate any suggestions from the CA members during the deliberations in the House,” Acharya said.
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