Jhapa, May 28:

Nepali Congress general-secretary Ram Chandra Poudel today said that the Nepali people cannot become sovereign until the management of Maoists’ arms.

Inaugurating the Mechi-Mahakali Youth Awareness Campaign organised by the Nepal Tarun Dal at Kakarvitta, Poudel expressed doubts over the Maoists’ demand to dissolve the House of Representatives.

“I cannot understand why the Maoists are demanding the dissolution of the House, which deprived the King of all his rights,” he said.

“The revival of the House made it possible to make the historic declaration of May 18; if the House is dissolved, there will not be any mechanism to control the government,” Poudel said.

On the issue of a secular state, he said: “The state doesn’t have any specific religion; religion is the faith of an individual.”

About a dozen Tarun Dal activists, including chairperson Binod Kaya-stha, vice chair-person Radhu Raman Neupane, secretary Motilal Shre-stha, Dhan Prasad Gurung, Usha Gurung, Manohar Parajuli, Damodar Koirala, Krishna Prasad Basyal, Khagendra Dewan and Bhumi Raj Rai, are taking part in the campaign that started today.

According Kayastha, a team lead by central vice-chairperson of Tarun Dal Hurmat Neupane and general secretary Puspa Parajuli left for east from Gaddachauki of Mahakali today.

Teams from the east and west will reach Chitwan on June 6 and a mass meeting will be organised there on the same day.

The objectives of the campaign are to create awareness about the establishment of lasting peace, resolution of Maoist crisis through arms management and constituent assembly polls, said Kayastha.