I AM NOT AN OBSTACLE PM TELLS PRESIDENT Kathmandu, 19 Dec.: : Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai has made it clear before President Dr Ram Baran Yadav that he was not an obstacle to a Consensus, RSS reports.. In a meeting with the President at Rastrapati Bhawan, Sheetal Niwas on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Bhattarai shared that he was of the view that a people's constitution should be drafted from the constituent assembly even during the ‘people's war’ and that he always fought for a constitution including republic and federalism. Apprising the President of the efforts and discussions held so far with political parties for a consensus and the latest developments towards that end, the Prime Minister made it clear that there was no truth in the ongoing publicity that he was standing before a consensus. "The ongoing publicity describing the Prime Minister as an obstacle to a consensus is not true, I am a person who advocated for a people's constitution from the constituent assembly even during the people's wartime and who fought for a constitution along with republic and federalism", Dr Bhattarai told reporters following the meeting. Stating that his biggest desire as the Prime Minister was to hold elections on time and to draft the constitution from the constituent assembly, Prime Minister Dr Bhattarai said the statement that I am an obstacle does not hold truth in any way. Dr Bhattarai's clarification comes in wake of the recent news reports describing the Prime Minister as an obstacle in the context of the President extending the term for a consensus government for the fifth time. The Prime Minister also shared with the President that he would be making an effort again for a consensus. Dr Bhattarai also informed journalists that he told the President that a consensus would be reached with an agreement to hold elections in May, for which the Government would do its utmost. Nnnn LEADERS HOLD DISCUSSIONS Kathmandu, 19 Dec.: Senior leaders of three major political parties on Wednesday held talks with a view to ending the current political deadlock in the country, The Himalayan Times reports.. The talks among the senior leaders of the Unified CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML focused on forging political consensus for the formation of a national unity government, holding the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections within the mid-May, and making appointments to the vacant posts at the constitutional bodies, among others. The leaders held talks for forging political consensus and agreed to settle the current political transition within a few days, said NC leader Arjun Narsingh KC after the meeting who was also present in the discussions. The leaders of the major political parties had the meeting, citing for forging political consensus for the formation of a national Unity government within the deadline given by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav for the fifth time. During the meeting, Chairman of the UCPN-Maoist, Pushpa Kamal Dahal put his opinions on ensuring the CA elections, taking ownership of the works executed by the dissolved CA, and respectful outing of the Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, among others, said KC. Similarly, NC President Shushil Koirala said the UCPN-Maoist has raised various unnecessary issues one after another, and stressed that the nation has no alternative to fresh CA election, said KC quoting Koirala. Nnnn An anti-polio drive campaign worker, Hilal Khan, who was shot and badly injured by unidentified gunmen, receives treatment at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar December 19, 2012. THREE MORE POLIO WORKERS SHOT DEAD IN PAKISTAN PESHAWAR: Three workers in a polio eradication campaign were shot in Pakistan on Wednesday, and two of them were killed, the latest in a string of attacks that has partially halted the U.N.-backed global health campaign to stamp out the crippling Disease, Reuters reports from Peshawar.. Following the violence, the United Nations in Pakistan has pulled all staff involved in the immunization campaign off the streets, spokesman Michael Coleman said. Wednesday saw at least three separate attacks. In the northwestern district of Charsadda, men on motorbikes shot dead a woman and her driver, police and health officials said. Hours earlier, a male health worker was shot and badly wounded in the nearby provincial capital of Peshawar. He remains in a critical condition, said a doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital where he is being treated. Four other women health workers were shot at but not hit in nearby Nowshera, said Jan Baz Afridi, deputy head of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation. It is not clear exactly who is behind the violence but some Islamists, including Taliban militants, have long opposed the campaign, with some saying it is aimed at sterilizing Muslims. The Taliban have repeatedly issued threats against the polio eradication campaign and health workers said they received calls telling them to stop working with the "infidels". But a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Ihsanullah Ihsan, told Reuters his group was not involved in the violence. On Monday and Tuesday, six female health workers were killed in attacks in the southern port city of Karachi and in Peshawar. The youngest was 17. The shootings, five of which happened in Karachi, home to 18 million people, led provincial health authorities to suspend the polio eradication campaign in the province of Sindh. But authorities in Khyber Paktunkhwa province, where the capital is Peshawar, said they would not accept a recommendation to suspend the campaign even as the United Nations ordered their staff to suspend work. "You know halting the campaign at this stage would create more problems as it's not a one-day phenomenon. If we stopped the campaign it would encourage the forces opposing the polio vaccination," said an official in the province, Javed Marwat. Despite this, many health workers told Reuters they would not be going to work until the security situation improved. The Taliban have repeatedly said the campaign is a Western conspiracy to sterilize or spy on Muslims or said the vaccinations could only continue if attacks by U.S. drone aircraft stopped. Their suspicions increased after it emerged that the CIA had used a fake vaccination campaign to try to gather information about Osama bin Laden, before he was found and killed in a northern Pakistani town last year. On Wednesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said the campaign needed to go on. "We cannot and would not allow polio to wreak havoc on the lives of our children," he said in a statement. Pakistan had 20,000 polio cases in 1994 but vigorous vaccination efforts had brought the number down to 56 in 2012, the statement said. A global vaccination campaign has eradicated the disease from everywhere except Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Polio can paralyse or kill within hours of infection. It is transmitted person-to-person, meaning that as long as one child is infected, the disease can be passed to others. nnnn