Kathmandu, January 8

The two task forces of major parties and the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front today started point-wise discussion on the front’s 11-point demands.

According to a member of the UDMF task force Hridayesh Tripathi, both the task forces have started debating on the 11-point demands in a free and frank manner.

He claimed that they had agreed not to disclose their stances to the media, as that might create problem during negotiations.

Asked how long it would take them to resolve the crisis, Tripathi said since even the major parties were serious about ending the stalemate, things could be sorted out soon.

Another UDMF task force member Rajendra Shrestha said UDMF asked the task force members of the major parties to articulate their political understanding of the issues raised by the UDMF — including federalism, demarcation and the bases of carving federal units. He said the UDMF task force has urged the major parties to come up with clear cut stances on the 11-point demands. He said if the two sides could create political understanding technical matters would not be an obstacle. Shrestha said the talks were held in a cordial manner.

Tripathi said they were planning to hold a long discussion on Saturday afternoon. NC General Secretary Prakash Man Singh was present instead of Mahesh Acharya and Home Minister Shakti Basnet represented Unified CPN-Maoist instead of UCPN-M General Secretary Krishna Bahadur Mahara in today’s meeting. During yesterday’s meeting, NC leader Mahesh Acharya had proposed to explore different options, including the reports of State Restructuring Committee of the first Constituent Assembly and the State Restructuring Commission formed by the CA, so as to frame Terms of Reference to resolve the crisis.