PRACHANDA BRIEFS PRESIDENT Kathmandu, 23 May: Maoist Chairman Prachanda Wednesday briefed President Dr. Baran Yadav on Tuesday night’s controversial cabinet decision to extend the constituent assembly (CA) by three months and possibly another three months if needed. The Maoist chief told the president the move was made because of time Constraint. Meanwhile, central leaders of NC Wednesday discussed Tuesday night’s dramatic developments at the residence of President Sushil KOirala whosaid the cabinet move was a contempt of court. Nnnn DETAILS OF GOVT. INJSC AGREEMENT Kathmandu, 23 May: The government and the Indigenous Nationalities Joint Struggle Committee (INJSC) have inked the nine-point deal, putting an end to the three-day nationwide shutdown enforced by the INJSC, RSS reports. REPORTS. The general strike has been called off with the striking of nine-point deal between the government and agitating side in the talks that took place at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction. The talks that started at 6 PM concluded at 11.15 PM on Tuesday. After the negotiation, the government talks team coordinator and Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Top Bahadur Rayamajhi said the deal includes the five point agreement on the issues of constitution and the four points associated to the government. According to the consensus, the new constitution shall be promulgated within the May 27 by institutionalizing democratic republic with ethnic identity-based federal units in lines with the bases, principle and criteria recommended by the State Restructuring and State Power Sharing Committee and the State Restructuring High Level Commission and the basis of accords signed earlier. Similarly, the agreement has been made on adopting proportional and inclusive electoral system, guaranteeing minimum 60 percent in the proportional scheme while 40 percent in the direct election. There will be proportional and inclusive representation in each state body based on ethnic, and gender-based population, reads the agreement. Another point in the agreement stated that the province would be devised with self determination rights, special rights, and autonomy by internalizing the national sovereignty, national unity, indivisibility, and independence of the country. Even the reserved zones and special zones would be arranged as per the agreement. Respecting the struggle of the indigenous nationalities, all those detained during struggle would be released unconditionally while cases of any others, if have, would be scrapped in this regard. Even the injured would be provided free treatment by the government. The details of the damage in the Tharu museum would be taken by the local administration and monetary assistance provided by the government making agreement with victims’ side. The consensus made so far with the indigenous nationalities’ organizations and parties and the decisions taken earlier in this connection would be implemented and the government’s attention was drawn to the protest by indigenous nationalities regarding the recognition to Brahmin, Chhetri and Dashnami the status of indigenous caste, the deal stated. After the consensus, general secretary of the Indigenous Ethnic Regional Federation Nepal and lawmaker Suresh Ale Magar said all the protest programmes including nationwide shutdown enforced in the name of indigenous nationalities struggle committee have been called off from Tuesday as the talks with the government ended with a positive note. Expressing confidence that the government would fulfill the commitments on all the points of consensus made with struggling committee, he said the committee, however, will keep on carrying out pressure-creating programme to have the deal implemented. The deal was signed by the government talks team coordinator and Peace Minister Rayamajhi, Minister for Irrigation Mahendra Yadav, Minister for General Administration Surya Man Gurung and Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun as a guest. On behalf of the struggling committee, Raj Kumar Lekhi, Gopal Kiranti, Zip Chhiring Sherpa, Dr. Mangal Siddii Manandhar, Rajesh Shakya and other leaders and CA members of the indigenous community signed the deal. nnnn SUSHIL KOIRALA AGAINST CA TERM EXTENSION Kathmandu, 23 May: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has said the Constituent Assembly (CA) term should not be extended anymore, RSS reports.. Organizing a press conference at the Koirala Niwas, Maharajgunj, on Tuesday, President Koirala said the party, which believes in independent judiciary, could not support the move to extend up CA’s tenure at a time when the judiciary had already issued verdict in this connection. The extension of CA term in this situation is the contempt of court, leader Koirala added. ‘The CA term should not be prolonged. It is in no way acceptable to the NC. It is the contempt of court’, he said. NC president Koirala came up with this remarks when the Cabinet meeting today decided to extend the CA tenure by three months by making 13th amendment to the constitution. Koirala said the issue of time extension was proposed in the meeting but the NC protested the view. ‘I aired my protesting view on the decision of extending tenure citing the Supreme Court verdict’. Unified CPN (Maoist) Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal came up with the proposition of extending the CA tenure by three months in this context, however the 4/5 years of continuous dialogue and talks on peace and constitution rendered nothing in concrete. On a query whether the NC would come back from the government, he said the decision would be made after discussing within the party and the party would also take the decision on the government. However, he stressed the the existing problems of the country should be sorted out through consensus, discussion and understanding. He accused the Maoists of creating hurdles though the NC was showing maximum flexibility in the meeting with the parties for the sake of institutionalizing the achievements yielded by the People’s Movement. With flexibility NC had agreed on the directly elected President under the forms of governance but the Maoists did not budge from its stance on other issues, commented NC President Koirala. nnnn DETAILS OF GOVT. PROPOSAL TO EXTEND CA TERM Kathmandu, 23 May May: Six days before the expiry of the Constituent Assembly (CA) term, the government on Tuesday registered a proposal at the secretariat of the Legislature-parliament for making 13th amendment of the Interim Constitution in order to extend the CA term by three Months, Nandalal Tiwari writes in The Rising Nepal.. The CA term is expiring on May 27. The government registered the bill following an agreement among the ruling three major parties-UCPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UMNL- and the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF). "Today’s meeting of the Council of Ministers have decided to register a proposal at the legislature-parliament for the 13th amendment of the interim constitution with a view to extending the CA term by three months," Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha informed the reporters after the Cabinet meeting in Singha Durbar. He said that the Cabinet decision was for avoiding any legal and technical difficulties to promulgate constitution even when there was consensus among the parties over the disputed issues of the new constitution. "Registering the bill to add term to the CA does not mean that we have decided to go toward that direction compulsorily. Instead we will strive hard to forge agreement by May 27 and promulgate the constitution. We hope we will succeed. However, we are apprehensive that we may lack time to promulgate constitution because drafting the constitution after the agreement will also take some time. For this reason, constitutional amendment is just a safety valve," DPM Shrestha said. On the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) that the CA term should not be extended beyond the present deadline, he argued that the main spirit of the SC decision was that the constitution should be promulgated in time and that the parties should make agreement so that the CA term was not extended indefinitely without any concrete outcome toward constitution promulgation. At the meeting among the three major parties and the UDMF that was held prior to the Cabinet decision, Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai had proposed for registering the bill to extend the CA term as a bill had to be registered at the secretariat of the parliament five days before the voting in the House. "We have agreed to register the bill despite our reservation over the move. We consented to the Prime Minister’s proposal considering the possible dangers that may emerge if we failed to deliver the constitution by May 27 and the CA is dissolved," said NC general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi after the meeting in PM office in Singha Durbar. He said that NC was forced to agree to the proposal as the UDMF rejected its idea that the parties could agree to make federal states numbering 6-14 and that the parliament would decide the exact number later on. "This could be one alternative to promulgate constitution by the present deadline as we He said that NC was forced to agree to the proposal as the UDMF rejected its idea that the parties could agree to make federal states numbering 6-14 and that the parliament would decide the exact number later on. "This could be one alternative to promulgate constitution by the present deadline as we are still to make agreement on state restructuring. Earlier, UCPN-Maoist and UDNF decided to try their best for the last time to forge consensus on the federal model by holding talks with Nepali Congress and CPN-UML. The meeting that was held at Maoist Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s residence in Lazimpat had also agreed to settle the contentious issues of the new constitution through voting in the CA. if the disputed issues of the state restructuring could not be resolved through talks. Meanwhile, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala objected to the government decision to extend the CA term saying it could be an encroachment over independent judiciary. Organising a press meet at his residence in Maharajgunj, Koirala said that he would call the meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee to dwell on the issue. When reminded that his party had representatives in the government, he responded that he was not informed about the government move to extend the CA term. nnnn