The Constituent Assembly on Friday endorsed its working calendar ., revising a proposal tabled earlier to bring the deadline for first statute draft closer by one month, As per the calendar, the first draft of the constitution will be ready by mid-October. On Thursday, the CA Secretariat proposed readying the first draft by mid November and promulgating the national charter in the last week of January next year. The promulgation time remains the same. Ra Pra Pa-Nepal,

the fourth largest party in the CA, had objected to the calendar of events demanding that the provision of holding referendum on contentious issues be incorporated in the work plan. The CA rules of procedure and constitution both provision referendum on disputed issues. Speaking in CA on Friday, RPP-Nepal lawmakers Dil Nath Giri and Kunti Shahi demanded that such provisions be incorporated in the calendar. As promised by major political parties earlier, the CA will have to promulgate a constitution within a year of its first meeting on January 22. But the Assembly has challenges in following the calendar. In the first CA, the work schedule was amended for a dozen times as the thematic committees failed to submit their reports owing to the parties' failure to reach an agreement on contentious issues. Even lawmakers have sounded cautious on the matter. Giriraj Mani Pokharel of the UCPN (Maoist) called for effective leadership in committees to meet the deadline. He added that various events such as festivals, party programmes and local elections could affect the plan. Others called for strong determination to complete the task of constitution writing. "A good calendar alone is not enough; a strong willpower to complete the task is what matters,

" CPN-UML lawmaker Rabindra Adhikari told the CA on Friday. He suggested monitoring the work of the committees to ensure that the timetable is followed. Most of the senior leaders and Cabinet members, however, were conspicuous by their absence during the endorsement of the calendar on Friday. Lawmakers Adhikari and Chandra Bhandari (Nepali Congress) and Ram Narayan Bidari [UCPN (Maoist)] lamented their absence. According to the calendar, chairpersons of five panels--Committee to Study and Determine Constitutional Records, Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee, Constitution Drafting Committee, Committee on Citizen and Public Opinion, Committee to Enhance the Capacity of Lawmakers and Resourced Mobilisation will be elected by April 28. The constitution drafting process will begin once the Committee to Study and Determine Constitutional Records submits its report on the progress made by the erstwhile CA. The Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee will hold talks among the parties to sort contentious issues, mainly the form of governance and federalism,,,

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