EDITORIAL: Come for talks

The new constitution is going to be a political document of compromise that cannot appease all as per their expectations

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has once again called upon the agitating Madhesis, the Tharus, Dalits and other indigenous ethnic groups to sit for talks to find an amicable solution to the issues related to the boundaries of the proposed federal units. The PM wrote a separate letter to each of the disgruntled parties or groups and reminded them of the urgency of delivering the new constitution on time to institutionalise the hard-earned achievements of the second Jana Andolan. He wrote the separate letters addressing them as per their requests. The PM has asked them to respond to his offer of talks within three days. A meeting of the four major parties that struck the 16-point deal paving the way for promulgating the new constitution had also stressed the need to hold talks with the agitating parties on Tuesday. The agitating Madhesi parties whose strength in the 601-member Constituent Assembly is only 34 seats, have, however, demanded that the previous agreement reached with them be implemented. One of the major demands of the Madhesi parties is to ensure proportional representation of the Madhesis in federal parliament and the entire plain districts should be divided into two Pradeshes with autonomy.

  • READ ALSO: PM invites Madhesi, Tharu outfits for talks

The other demand of the agitating parties is the withdrawal of the Nepali Army deployed in the troubled Tarai districts after the brutal killing of seven policemen and a two-year-old child in Tikapur, Kailali on Monday. This demand is illogical. It is the prime duty of the state/government to maintain law and order and safeguard life and property of the general public, government facilities and ensure free movement of people and goods from one place to another. The state cannot remain a mute spectator when law and order situation goes out of control. The army was deployed in the troubled districts to protect the life of general public, even those of the agitators who faced

retribution by others who were opposed to the continued general strikes paralyzing the normal life in the plain districts over the demarcations of the Pradeshes. The government has every right to deploy the army in the disturbed areas as long as the security situation is serious.

It seems that the government and the major political parties have applied a two-pronged strategy to address whatever grievances the agitating parties or groups may have. The government has re-strengthened security situation in the Tarai districts while the major parties have vowed to continue with the constitution-drafting process which is in the final stage of its promulgation. Therefore the PM has called upon the agitating parties to come for talks within three days. If they come for talks and any agreement is reached between the major parties and them the agreed upon issues will be incorporated in the new constitution making some amendments to the revised draft of the constitution. If the agitating forces turn down the PM’s olive branch this time, they will miss the historic opportunity of drafting the new constitution on consensus basis. What is clear is that the new constitution is going to be a political document of compromise that cannot appease all as per their expectations.

Scrap old vehicles

It has been almost a year since the owners of vehicles more than twenty years old were prohibited and were required to stay off the road. However, this provision has not been followed. The negligence of the implementation of this requirement has been taken very lightly as the figures show that only five public vehicles in Bagmati Zone have scrapped their vehicles so far. Such old vehicles are involved in many accidents and also responsible for much of the air pollution. There are around 15,000 such old vehicles plying on the roads of the country illegally. Yet the authorities seem to be least bothered. The vehicle owners have been given two years to send them to the scrap yard in this zone.

In the absence of proper monitoring implementing this requirement should be taken up very seriously considering the enormous harm the aged vehicles are doing to the environment as well as those using the roads. Firstly, all new public vehicles should be registered in the bill books of all the zones.