Madhes-based parties boycott crucial all-party meeting called by PM

Nepal's Madhes-based parties, who have been agitating nearly for a year demanding better representation in the parliament and the administrative divisions envisaged in the new constitution, boycotted an all-party meeting called by Prime Minister K.P Sharma Oli on Tuesday.

The prime minister called the all-party meeting to find a negotiated settlement of all the contemporary as well as solving constitutional issues, the prime minister's Press Adviser Pramod Dahal told Xinhua.

"The Madhes-based parties didn't join today's meeting, but the government still hopes that the agitating parties will sit for the dialogue," he said.

Noting that the prime minister wrote a six-point letter to the Madhes-based parties on Monday calling them to sit down for talks, the advisor said , adding that the prime minister is making all efforts to address the genuine demands of Madhes-based parties through political peaceful means.

During the meeting, the opposition party urged the prime minister to create a conducive environment to sort out pending issues raised by the Madhes-based parties.

"Today's meeting did not yield any positive results as the Madhes-based parties shunned the meeting. We have urged the government to create a conducive environment to invite the agitating parties for talks and resolve the turmoil," Mahesh Acharya, a leader of the Nepali Congress, said.

Ruling parties CPN-UML, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) and the major opposition party Nepali Congress, who participated the all-party meeting, have decided to continue holding talks with the Madhes-based parties to address their genuine demands.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Oli said that he is sincere to address genuine concerns raised by the Madhes-based parties and give a way out from the ongoing political turmoil in the country, according to Adviser Dahal.

"The government is flexible and positive toward addressing the genuine demands of the Madhes-based parties. The prime minister wrote a letter to Madhes-based parties yesterday requesting them to have a fresh round of dialogue. We hope the agitating parties will soon join the negotiation," Agni Kharel, a minister under the Oli administration, said.

A leader of agitating alliance, Rajendra Mahato, on Tuesday told local media "We have received the letter sent from the prime minister. We have taken it very positively".

Under the banner of Federal Alliance, the disgruntled fringe Madhes-based parties have been staging fresh round of protests in the Capital City Kathmandu for about a month to exert pressure on the government to re-write the constitution promulgated in September last year.

The Madhes-based parties and fringe ethnic groups claim that the constitution is discriminatory and doesn't ensure adequate political autonomy to them.

A few weeks ago, the alliance put forward a 26-point demand with the government. The Madhes-based parties launched nearly a six-month-long agitation in Nepal's southern plains bordering India from September last year, in which over 50 people including security personnel were killed and hundreds injured.

(APD)