Geography should be the first basis for federal division of the country: Tripathi

Senior leader of Terai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) Hridayesh Tripathi has said that the first basis to be considered while determining the federal structure of the country should be the geography.

In an interview with Nepalnews on 'federalism,' he said cultural and ethnic factors should also be considered after geographical area is fixed for a federal unit.

He said that there should be a consensus on geographical division of single Madhes province first after which political division of different provinces can be considered.

However, he reiterated his party's intention that they wanted a single Madhes both geographically and politically.

Tripathi said that there could be many sub-provinces under single Madhes or Terai province.

"Dividing a Madhes into different provinces will ultimately contribute to establish a reign of people of hilly region again," he argued.

Talking about sharing of rights between the center and the provinces, he said the center should have very limited role especially related to national security, foreign policy and monetary policy. nepalnews.com ps July 25 08