Authors: Super UserKATHMANDU, June 16: Responding to the prime minister's call for talks, the agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) has sent a letter to the government setting out seven-point conditions.A meeting on Thursday of seven Madhes-based political parties aligned to the UDMF decided to send a letter to the PM setting out their conditions for making the talks productive.
Earlier, PM KP Sharma Oli had written to the agitating parties appealing to them to resume talks with the government.
UDMF has demanded that past agreements, including the 22-point agreement and the eight-point deal forged at different times between the then governments and the Madhes-based parties following the Madhes movement of 2007 and the agitations carried out by various ethnic communities, should be implemented.
The agitating parties have demanded changes in various provisions of the new constitution that, according to them, are discriminatory.
The parties have also demanded that those who lost their lives during recent Madhes agitations should be declared martyrs and the government should bear the medical expenses for those injured in the protests.
They have also demanded that cases filed against their cadres in connection with the protests should be scrapped.UDMF has further demanded that the government call the Federal Alliance to the talks.
Some Madhes-based parties that aren't aligned with UDMF are with the alliance.If the government addresses the above-mentioned issues, we will be ready for result-oriented talks, reads the letter.
UDMF has also urged the government to furnish its opinion on the 26-point demand that UDMF and the Federal Alliance jointly presented to the government on April 27.The agitating parties' response in writing comes at a time when talks between them and the government haven't taken place for some months.