NMSP to launch awareness drive, press Madhesi issues

KATHMANDU, Sept 1: In a bid to exert pressure on the government to address Madhesi issues including Madhesi youths in the national army and the formation of a Madhesi commission to oversee the problems of the Madhesi people, the National Madhes Socialist Party (NMSP) has decided to launch an awareness campaign across the Tarai districts from the third week of September.



"We will go among the Madhesi people to inform them about all the issues and raise their awareness during the first phase of our campaign," said Chairman of NMSP Sharat Singh Bhandari while addressing a press conference organized in Lalitpur on Saturday to make public the decisions of the party´s extended Central Committee meeting held August 30-31. [break\]



He stated that in the second phase of the campaign they would draw the attention of state mechanisms concerned regarding their demands. "We will set a deadline for addressing our demands, in the third phase of our program," said Bhandari, adding, "If our demands are not addressed within the deadline, we will take to the streets."



He maintained that restoration of the Constituent Assembly (CA) would not be acceptable to them, saying there was no legal, moral and or any other plausible grounds for doing so.



"The CA should be re-elected with a fresh mandate and a new constitution must be promulgated by the CA alone, not from beyond the CA," Bhandari added.



He demanded the participation of opposition Madhesi parties in talks on the current political deadlock, stating that agreement reached among the three major parties and the ruling United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) could not be considered national consensus.



The Madhesi party has demanded speedy recruitment of Madhesi youths into the Nepal Army (NA) after completing the necessary procedures in line with the four-point agreement reached between the UCPN (Maoist) and the UDMF in August last year.



NMSP has concluded that the recently formed Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA) under the UCPN (Maoist) is chiefly meant to prolong the coalition’s stay in power.



"The ruling parties, in the present state of political vacuum, have been trying to prolong their stay in government by forming an alliance that will push national politics towards further polarization," Bhandari stated.



NMSP has also accused the ruling Madhes-based parties of remaining oblivious of the Madhes agenda that they had taken up while joining the government, and added that the activities of the Madhesi parties only seemed to help the Maoist intention of capturing state power.

Related story

Women who drive