KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 17
Home Minister Balkrishna Khand today sat for discussions with authorities concerned about implementation of the agreement reached with the Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand.
The home minister met Minister of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Dilendra Prasad Badu, Secretary Uday Raj Sapkota, Attorney General Khamba Bahadur Khati, and Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey to discuss the issue. Efforts made so far to enforce the agreement and a future course of action were discussed during the meeting. The minister apprised those present in the meeting about the talks he had with the CPN leader and measures for implementation of the agreement.
It may be noted that the previous government and the party, had on March 4 this year, signed a threepoint agreement with the Chand-led CPN. Today’s discussion mainly dwelt on point No 3, which is about the withdrawal of a ban against the party, release of party leaders and cadres from prison, and revocation of all cases against them. The law ministry secretary and the attorney general briefed the minister about the nature of cases capable of being scrapped and the provisions for freeing detained leaders of the Chand group.
He said almost all recommendations from the home ministry and the Office of the Attorney for the release had been executed and only a few, which could not be executed due to their special nature, were awaiting implementation.
The meeting agreed to meet once again to discuss the issue and sit with party leaders for government’s preparations to sort out the matter.
The Chand-led CPN, earlier, had met with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, coalition partner CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal and Home Minister Khand with calls to implement the agreement reached with the erstwhile government.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 18, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.