Kathmandu, March 12:

The Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF) today announced that it will padlock all customs points on the Nepal-India border and district-level offices in all district headquarters in the Tarai.

The forum has, however, called off the general strike, keeping in mind the hardships faced by the people in the region.

It said the step is being taken to exert pressure on the government to meet its demands of a proportional representation system in constituent assembly election and the federal system of governance with the right to self-determination.

Forum president Upendra Yadav said they will also padlock counters of excise, tax, land revenue, electricity and telecom offices, which are major sources of income for the government. He said they will gherao the Singh Durbar premises on March 29.

A federal system of governance with the right to self-determination, proportional representation system of election according to the distribution of population and proportional representation of the Madhesis in state affairs are major demands of the forum.

He said the first-part-the-post system of election was unacceptable to the forum. Terming the system “discriminatory”, he said the first amendment to the interim constitution did not address the Madhesi’s just demands.

Yadav said political parties must reach a consensus on fundamental principles of the new constitution before the constituent assembly election.

He also reiterated that the Home Minister’s resignation and formation of a high-level powerful

commission to probe into incidents in Tarai are preconditions for holding talks with the government’s talks team.

Earlier, a meeting of the indigenous and nationalities, Dalit, Madhesi, women, minorities and backward communities objected to the first amendment to the interim constitution.

The meeting also agreed to launch a joint movement for the fulfilment of their common demands.