As the country is moving towards the election of the constituent assembly with various discussions about the restructuring of the state, leaders of six major political parties have came up with a joint concept paper on restructuring and transformation of the state.

The paper jointly prepared by Jhalanath Khanal of CPN-UML, Dhruba Bahadur Pradan of Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Narahari Acharya of Nepali Congress, Pari Thapa of Jana Morcha Nepal, Minendra Rijal of Nepali Congress-Democratic and Sarita Giri of Nepal Sadbhavana Party – Anandi Devi has underlined the need for overall reforms in state structure and governance system to resolve the existing crisis.

The concept paper, deals mainly with lessons learnt from the past, state structure and ruling mechanism, transformation and change in state mechanism, change in electoral process, internal democracy in political parties and constituent assembly: people’s participation in state transformation.

While presenting the paper, Khanal said the nation could adopt presidential, parliamentary or prime ministerial system in order to ensure inclusive democracy that would incorporate all castes, creeds, and ethnic, religious and regional communities.

It was difficult to work together because we were from different backgrounds, but we learned from other members and were also influenced by their rational logics, said Acharya, one of the members of the committee.

Thapa said it was essential to overhaul state machineries. He added that the concept paper was a joint-document of ideologies of six parties and was prepared through long discussions.

In the paper, the leaders have suggested the nation should be restructured into different states, on the basis of population, geography, language, economic relation and communal-cultural identity.

The regions will prepare their policies, plans and programmes, except on foreign affairs, defence and monetary system.

The paper has stressed on balance of power among the executive, legislative and judiciary.

It has also suggested a small but defensive security system. The leaders have also advocated in favor of a strong anti-graft body.