Kathmandu, January 22, 2007

At the high-level meeting of the eight political parties today, the CPN-Maoist expressed sadness over the death of 17-year-old Ramesh Mahato.

He was killed when Maoist cadres opened fire. The meeting has agreed that the Maoist leadership would issue a separate statement regretting the Lahan incident.

Expressing profound sadness over the incident, the leaders extended condolences to Mahato’s family members, urged the government to take legal action against those responsible for the killing of the boy and provide compensation and relief to Mahato’s family.

After the meeting UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and Nepali Congress general secretary Ramchandra Poudel said that the compensation to Mahato’s family would be equivalent to the amount given to families of martyrs declared by the government.

“We believe that any kinds of problems can be resolved through dialogue. We also believe that the problems faced by the Madhesi, women, dalit, indigenous people and regional, ethnic and gender issues can be solved through an election to a constituent assembly.

We, therefore, urge both the government and the parties concerned to take initiatives for a dialogue to resolve the problems that can be sorted out before the constituent assembly,” said a joint press statement issued by the leaders.

Maoist chairman Prachanda and United Left Front president CP Mainali, however, were absent as both of them were out of the capital.

Citizenship issued to over 21,000 in west

Citizenship certificate distribution teams have distributed citizenship certificates to 21,619 persons in the Western Region as of Sunday evening, the Western Regional Administration Office (WRAO), Pokhara, said. Most of the certificates were distributed on the basis of ancestry; 537 naturalised citizenship certificates were also distributed.

Ninety-seven citizenship certificate distribution teams have been mobilised to distribute citizenship certificates in 14 districts of the western region, Western Regional Administration Office (WRAO), Pokhara said.

As of Sunday evening, the teams mobilised in Nawalparasi had distributed 3,407 citizenship certificates; 274 citizenship certificates were distributed in Myagdi district, an official at the WRAO (Pokhara), Dilli Prasad Dhungana, said.

Similarly, 614 citizenship certificates were distributed in Parvat, 2,798 in Baglung, 1,489 in Kaski, 723 in Lamjung, 1,376 in Gorkha, 1,243 in Tanahun, 1,726 in Syangja, 2,097 in Arghakhanchi, 3,407 in Nawalparasi, 763 in Rupandehi, 926 in Palpa, 2,070 in Gulmi, 2,113 in Kapilvastu, the WRAO (Pokhara) said.

Altogether 390 naturalised citizenship certificates were distributed in Nawalparasi, 140 in Rupandehi, four in Lamjung, two in Tanahun and one in Kaski.