Siraha, December 7:

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bam Dev Gautam has said he will step down if the situation in the Tarai did not improve in the next three months.

Addressing a meeting of the district-level cadres of the party in Lahan today, he said though the law and order situation in the Tarai was gradually improving, a lot still needed to be done in this regard. He, however, ruled out making the entire Tarai region a single state. He said federal units should be carved out based on language, region, traditions and ethnicity.

He said the government was set to hold talks with the warring Tarai outfits soon and

threatened that the government would use force against those who had turned down the government’s offer for talks. The government is ready to hold the talks with those, who are politically motivated, he added.

He said the integration of the armies would be dealt with soon, as the country could not have two armies at the same time. Claiming that the Nepali Congress would eventually join the army merger committee, Gautam, who himself is a member of the committee, made it clear that the modalities to integrate the armies were not yet clear.

He said nobody was above the law and made it clear that action would be taken against anybody, whether it be the YCL or YF.

Gautam met heads of the security organs of Siraha, Saptari and Udayapur and discussed the law and order situation in the Tarai and issued stern directives to end violence.