At a meeting of the MPRF-D parliamentary party held in Singha Durbar on Monday, Gachchhadar, who is also deputy prime minister and home minister, said that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the Defense Ministry and Law Ministry have already taken initiatives to implement the Madhesi issues related to those ministries.[break]
“The Inclusion Bill has been forwarded to the Law Ministry for incorporating necessary suggestions; MoHA has been searching for the documents with a view to withdrawing cases filed against leaders and cadres of Madhes-based political parties and the Defense Ministry has been holding discussions with the Nepal Army (NA) to begin the process of recruiting Madhesi youths,” lawmaker Sarbadev Prasad Jha quoted Gachchhadar as saying at the meeting.
Gachchhadar also said that his ministry has been moving ahead to address problems regarding citizenship across the Tarai.
Another MPRF-D lawmaker, Nilam Burma, said that Gachchhadar asked lawmakers to provide a week more for concrete progress over the four-point agreement.
“I will show some concrete progress on Madhesi issues within a week,” Burma quoted Gachchhadar as saying at the meeting called by the party leadership as demanded by lawmakers since a long time.
At the meeting, lawmakers put forth their view that the UDMF must not fool the people, saying the Madhesi alliance has made progress on Madhesi issues.
“We demanded that our leadership update us every two weeks about progress made on the Madhesi issues; let´s not talk nonsense,” Jha told Republica.
Gachchhadar also said that the party will take further initiatives to exert pressure on the government to address Madhesi issues after a meeting of the Madhesi alliance.
A two-day meeting of UDMF is scheduled starting Thursday to review progress made under the four-point agreement.
Responding to queries of party lawmakers regarding the ultimatum of MPRF-R, a constituent party of UDMF, to implement the remaining issues of the four-point agreement, Gachchhadar said it was useless to issue an ultimatum as major political parties have already agreed to conclude the deal by mid-December.
Senior leader Sarat Singh Bhandari, who is unhappy with the party´s performance in the government, was absent from the meeting. Bhandari could not be reached when Republica tried to contact him regarding his absence. However, Burma said that Bhandari could not attend as he was out of the capital.
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