Three-party meet fails to allay major Madheshi concern

Online Khabar

Kathmandu, October 5 . Three major parties – the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the UCPN-Maoist – have failed to come up with a new proposal on delineation of provinces.

The three parties had sat for talks at Baluwatar a day after the United Democratic Madheshi Front formed a team for talks with the three parties. At the meeting, the three-party talks team had briefed about talks with the UDMF and progress achieved so far.

The meeting decided to implement the decisions on Madheshi and Tharu parties’ demands without delay. It directed the Home Ministry to release protesters, take back fake cases filed against UDMF cadres and provide treatment to those injured during the Madhesh movement.

But the meeting failed to make a decision on how to respond to Madheshi parties’ objection over the delineation of provinces. At Sunday’s meeting, UCPN-Maoist Vice-chair and a talks team member, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, said talks will not be successful if there’s no change in status quo. A participant at the meeting quoted Shrestha as saying that the problem will not solve if the political parties bolstered by constitution promulgation intensify efforts to form a new government. At times, there’s a need to avoid hurting sentiments by taking some steps even if political agendas are inappropriate, the UML leader said, advising the parties to think about province delineation in a new way.

But the top leaders of the three parties did not take Shrestha’s proposal seriously. The three parties have said they will start serious talks without delay, without bothering to address the main political agenda (province delineation), a leader said.

UDMF has said that it will not call off its protest without the resolution of the issue of province delineation.