Kathmandu, November 24:

Assistant minister for Water Resources Binod Kumar Shah today assured that the government will provide full security for all involved in Municipal election process to be held on February 8.

Addressing a talk programme at the Media Group, Shah said the government is committed to provide security for the municipal election. “The security scenario is improving gradually. This is a good background for free and fair election,” he said. Stating that the election cannot be postponed at any pretext, he said, “We cannot wait until all the problems are solved.” On the recent 12-point agreement between the political parties and the Maoists, Shah said the government has not stopped anyone from meeting anyone but, “any accord done without the state’s presence does not make sense”.

He claimed that the Maoists have come to negotiate with the political parties because the

“government has broken the backbone of the Maoists”. Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, a Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader, said it is not necessary to criticize the agreement if it aims at making the Maoists continue with their ceasefire. “The most important thing Nepal needs is peace and every citizen has the right to work for peace,” he said, urging not to analyze any peace process with suspicion. On election, he said that RPP will not go away from democratic environment, but the government must first guarantee security. “So far security is concerned, we can only say that the district headquarters and municipalities are relatively secured,” he said. Former minister Kamal Chaulagai said NC and UML, which participated in election even during the Panchayati period, should rethink over their decision to boycott election. He also criticised RPP and RJP for not being clear on election issue.