Kathmandu: Nepal's Maoists today decided
to end its blockade of the parliament so as to allow the
government to pass the crucial budget, but planned to go ahead
with the next phase of their agitation to dislodge the
coalition in a dispute over "civilian supremacy".
The former rebels, after a key meeting of the
politburo of the Unified CPN (Maoist), decided to allow the
parliament to function for three days so as to facilitate the
passage of the 2009/10 budget.
"Our consistent efforts to find a solution failed to
lead to any result," Maoist Chairman Prachanda said.
"However, being responsible to the country, people,
security persons and others, we have decided to let the
parliament open for three days to pass the budget," he told
media persons after the party´s central committee meeting.
The failure to pass the budget would have led to the
shutdown of the government as authorities would have been
unable to pay the salaries of its civil servants.
The Maoist party also decided to launch a month-long
third phase of its protest programmes from November 22 to
December 22 for the enforcement of "civilian supremacy" in the
country.
"We have decided to launch the third phase of protests
as the government did not address our demands even after the
ultimatum issued by our party expired on Friday," Dina
Nath Sharma, the Maoist spokesperson, was quoted as saying by
myrepublica online today.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009, 20:35