Kathmandu, March 15:

The standing committee meeting of the CPN-UML today urged the government and Maoists to announce a mutual ceasefire to bail out the country from the crisis it is facing.

The meeting, cha-ired by acting general secretary Amrit Kumar Bohara, also appealed to the Maoists to withdraw blockade of the district headquarters and indefinite general strike they have announced from April 3 so that the seven-party alliance could lau-nch peaceful movement to end the King’s autocracy.

Bohara said the meeting laid emphasis on the alliance’s unity and expressed the party’s full commitment to the12-point understanding reached with the Maoists in November. The party noted that King’s “autocratic ambition” doesn’t augur well for the nation.

The party also appealed to the people to take to streets in the rally scheduled for Ap-ril 8 in Kathmandu, as peaceful movement was the only way to end autocracy and restore democracy and peace.

Meanwhile, UML’s Kathmandu district committee, in a press release, demanded that the government withdrew amended ordinance of Labour Act, 2048 BS, saying it was aimed at curtailing rights of the labourers.

The ordinance, according to labour unions, has given more teeth to management on hiring and firing of the labourers and allowed the foreign nationals to work as consultants, experts and executive managers in the firms with foreign direct investment.

Alliance’s protest plan

Kathmandu: The task force of the seven-party alliance that met here on Wednesday drafted a plan of action for the successful conduct of the agitation starting April 8. Though members of the task force declined to make public the plan for strategic reasons, they said all the constituents of the alliance would have to come up with separate protest programmes to ensure large turnout during the upcoming movement that gets underway on April 8 which is celebrated as the Mass Movement Day. — HNS