Nepalese opposition announces fresh round of protests after consensus efforts fail

As talks with ruling parties yielded no positive results for the past two months, Nepal's opposition alliance announced second-phase protest programs to exert pressure on the ruling parties for what they call a new constitution through all-party consensus, opposition leaders said in a statement on Sunday in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

Concluding that the ruling parties, the Nepali Congress and CPN- UML, are not ready to budge from their stances on key debated issues of the new constitution, delineation and nomenclature of federal provinces, system of governance, electoral system and structure of judiciary, the UCPN (Maoist)-led 30-party alliance announced stern agitation programs against the ruling parties.

As part of their agitation programs, the opposition parties have decided to hold a general strike from April 7 to 9 in the capital, chairman of the 30-party alliance Pushpa Kamal Dahal said in the statement. The opposition parties have also announced to shutdown all government offices across the nation for four days beginning on April 3.

They have also planned to obstruct Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, deputy prime ministers and ministers from entering to their offices and boycott the programs to be organized by the prime minister from next week.

Earlier, by organizing a huge assembly in participation of tens and thousands of people in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on Feb. 28, the opposition alliance had completed its first phase agitation programs.

The opposition parties have been intensifying their agitation programs objecting the ruling parties' decision to settle the debated issues of the constitution through voting process in the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Nepalese parties had missed the self-imposed deadline on Jan 25 for promulgating the new constitution through the CA as they couldn't forge consensus on key debated issues. Endi