A meeting of the taskforce held at Singha Durbar on Friday, discussed the replies given by leaders from the three parties in response to the 11-point demand of the agitating parties. Taskforce members from the major three political parties -- Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) -- and the agitating UDMF have said that they have been sorting out differences one by one with an aim to forge consensus within a few days.
Speaker Onsari Gharti deferred the parliament meeting scheduled for Wednesday for coming Tuesday as the leaders from both sides have been negotiating for making changes in the wordings of the constitution amendment bill, which was tabled in the House earlier this month.
"We are working to prepare a concrete draft of the agreement from the taskforce level. We hope we will be able to do it tomorrow (Saturday)," said UCPN (Maoist) General Secretary and a taskforce member Krishna Bahadur Mahara.
Next meeting of the taskforce has been scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Before the taskforce meeting, both sides will hold internal discussions on the progress made at the talks.
Hridayesh Tripathi of Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party also said that talks are making a positive headway. "I don't see possibility of any conclusion tomorrow, but I am hopeful that consensus will be reached at the earliest," said Tripathi emerging from the meeting.
According to Tripathi, the three-party taskforce members had briefed the Madhesi parties on the views of the three parties on the 11-point demand of the Madhesi parties. Both the sides refused to disclose the three parties' views on the Madhesi demands.
Top guns of major three parties on Thursday had discussed about meeting point between major parties and agitating sides over constitution amendment, reviewing of delineation of provinces, citizenship provisions, inclusion policy in the Nepal Army, adding languages to the official language list and formation of a more inclusive national assembly.
Agitating parties have proposed that the new constitution should continue with the policy of inclusion enshrined in the past interim constitution and have sought clarity over the jurisdiction and authenticity of the proposed political committee for settling provincial demarcation disputes.
Defense Minister Bhim Rawal said that both sides are positive on signing a written agreement no later than next meeting of the parliament. He claimed that the taskforce would finalize the deal by Saturday.
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