Kathmandu, February 19:

Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang today urged Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to immediately address the Madhes issues through dialogue.

Nembang said he had wide discussions with the PM on current problems, including Madhes turmoil and fuel scarcity.

“I drew the PM’s attention on the Madhes issue and its urgency to come to a concrete solution,” Nembang said at a programme organised here to release the Human Rights Report-2007.

Speaker Nembang quoted PM Koirala as saying that he was serious and positive to address the Madhes issue through dialogue. “I have initiated efforts to bring them (the Madhesi leaders) to the talks table,” Speaker Nembang quoted the PM as saying. Nembang also said the PM assured him of an early solution to the current acute shortage of petroleum products.

Meanwhile, a civil society member today warned PM Koirala that his “irresponsible comments” on the demands of the Madhesi groups could hamper the environment for talks with them and affect the CA polls.

His warning came after PM Koirala on Saturday said that the demands of self-determination and announcing entire Madhes a region are not acceptable.

Addressing a programme today, coordinator of Civil Movement of Democracy and Peace Dr Devendra Raj Panday said that the irresponsible remarks of the PM have become hurdles for just and peaceful management of the Madhes movement.

“The government has failed to ensure the people’s rights to security and live peaceably and it doesn’t seem capable to hold the CA polls too. The civil society will have to search for an alternative to the SPA and the government if they continue to be not responsible to people’s demands,” he said.

He said the indigenous people, Madhesi, women, disabled and conflict victims have moved forward with their genuine demands and it is not possible for them to retreat. “The question at this time is whether the PM is ready to present himself to meet demands of the marginalised people,” he said.