Nepal’s special committee entrusted to divide the country into federal provinces on Friday decided to add one more unit and opt for a seven-province model, in an effort to address the concerns of political parties protesting against the earlier model.
The first five provinces that were agreed upon earlier more or less remained unchanged in the new model, according to Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) chairman Baburam Bhattarai.
However, <g data-gr-id="18">Thori</g> Village Development Committee of Parsa district, bordering Chitwan, has been kept in Province No 3.
The sixth province, which was the biggest in size in the earlier model, has now been split into two: Province No 6 and Province No 7.
The federal model or the number of provinces, their demarcation and naming have become a major contention for the Nepalese political parties to promulgate the new Constitution.
Following the agreement, the Constitution Drafting Committee will finalise its report and prepare the final draft of the Constitution, in the form of a Constitution Bill, which will then be tabled at the Constituent Assembly.
Biggest political parties Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist, had on August 8 proposed a six-province model.