Madhesi leaders upbeat about deal with government
Leaders of United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) have expressed high hopes on the deal with the government on Thursday.
Talking to reporters as they prepared to hold talks with government representatives at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar, leader of Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP) Hridayesh Tripathy said, "The package of the deal is within Baluwatar. We hope not to return empty handed today but bring that package with us."
Rajendra Mahato, chief of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (NSP), said that once the deal is sealed, there will be conducive environment for April election.
After a week-long marathon talks and behind the scene parleys, the government and the agitating UDMF are said to be close to inking a deal on Thursday to effectively end the terai crisis that has brought the entire country into a standstill.
It is learnt that the government and UDMF had reached an 8-point agreement and are set to formalise it by signing it later Thursday. Following the agreement, the UDMF would announce an end to the 16-day long indefinite strike in Madhes and the government would reciprocate by facilitating their filing of nominations for upcoming elections.
However, details regarding the agreement is still sketchy.
Earlier, doubts and mistrusts between the UDMF and government had largely obstructed 'decisive' talks from taking place between the two sides. Although it was anticipated that the two sides would strike a deal on Wednesday, it couldn't happen after the government could not reach any decision on UDMF demand for group-wise recruitment of Madhesis in NA. Likewise, the Madhesi leaders also insisted that Prime Minister himself sign the understanding with them. nepalnews.com sd/ag Feb 28 08
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