India expects Nepal's leaders to work together for constitution

New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) As Nepal's opposition leaders indulged in violence in the Constituent Assembly ahead of the deadline for promulgation of the new constitution, India Tuesday said it expects that all Nepalese leaders will work together in drawing up the constitution.

"It is our expectation that all Nepalese leaders will work together in the final stage of the peace process, in drawing up a constitution that honours past agreements and understandings as well as the mandate of the Constituent Assembly elections," external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.

In Kathmandu, over a dozen Constituent Assembly members were injured Tuesday when opposition members attacked lawmakers of the ruling parties over issues concerning the new statute and disrupted the proceedings.

Lawmakers from the opposition parties led by Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-Maoist) vandalised the Constituent Assembly and attacked the ruling coalition lawmakers.

A self-imposed deadline set for Jan 22 over the promulgation of the new constitution is approaching after repeated failure to reach a consensus over the intricacies of the new statute.

The ruling Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) wanted to go ahead with voting to bring out the draft of the new statute.

Constituent Assembly chairman Subash Chandra Nembang announced the house could go ahead with the voting to bring out the draft statute, which led to rampage in the assembly.