KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 17

The government has constituted a talks team to hold dialogue with the protesting Nepal Medical Association.

Minister for Health and Population Mohan Bahadur Basnet formed a five-member talks team with the Ministry's Additional Secretary Dr Bikash Devkota as coordinator, Joint Secretary at the Ministry Tulasinath Gautam said. A Joint Secretary each from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Population is the member of the team.

The talks team has immediately called the doctors for talks. The Association has shut all the services, except the emergency, at the health facilities throughout the country today, calling for action against those responsible for assaulting on doctors.

The NMA decision comes as an organized pressure to seek action against those involved in the physical assault on two doctors at Sancho Hospital in Hetauda on September 13.