Seven Nepali Congress lawmakers from the far-western region have taken serious exception to the State Restructuring Commission (SRC)'s recommendation to 'divide' the region into separate federal states.

Issuing a joint statement, NC lawmakers Ramesh Lekhak, Araju Deuba, Dev Raj Joshi, Kalpana Sob, Maha Nepali, Ishwori Neupane and Chandriram Tamata said the far-western region must remain undivided and that the inclusion of any part of the region to other federal states would not be acceptable.

Saying that all nine districts of far-western region share same cultural and economic characteristic, the NC lawmakers said they would stand firm against any move to divide the region.

They have mainly objected to the SRC recommendation to place Kailali and Kanchanpur districts into Madhesh-Awadh-Tharuwan state.

Earlier, local leaders of the UCPN (Maoist) including Seti-Mahakali State Committee's in-charge and Commerce and Supply Lekhraj Bhatta had threatened to launch protest movement against the possible move to divide far-western region into separate provinces. nepalnews.com