By IANS
Kathmandu : Adjourned for more than a month due to protests by unruly MPs, Nepal's parliament couldn't convene Thursday either despite Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala holding interminable parleys with the speaker and leaders of the main parties.
Speaker Subhash Chandra Nembang, who had held talks with Koirala Thursday morning about convening the house that has remained paralysed since last month, adjourned the house till Friday after indications from legislators that they could continue their defiance.
The disruptions began last month, soon after the Maoist guerrillas joined the seven-party government, with rebel MPs preventing the house from convening to protest against police raids on the office of their youth wing to seek illegal weapons.
The rank of dissenters swelled when legislators from the Terai plains in the south, cutting across party lines, pitched in with different demands.
Trouble has spread to the education sector with Maoist organisations targeting schools, the softest targets.
Over 35,000 schools nationwide with over 7.6 million students have been closed for over a week now with seven teachers' organisations and the militant Maoist student wing demanding higher pay and other terms.
The Terai MPs are accusing Koirala of ignoring the plight of the plains that have been burning since January with violence, abduction, extortion and killings on the rise.
Now, after a month's protests and disruption, the Maoists are ready to allow the house to sit but the Terai MPs say they will continue with their sloganeering till the government scraps a commission formed to add new constituencies for the upcoming election and forms a new one to probe the unrest in the plains.
Koirala has met Maoist supremo Prachanda and the leaders of the other ruling parties to discuss how to resolve the impasse. He is also reported to have sought the help of the Indian government to restore peace in the plains.
However, the Terai continues to be turbulent with a host of small armed groups stepping up violent activities with impunity.
Though the protesters have refused to hold talks with anyone other than the education minister, the minister says the demands can be implemented only after a consultation between all eight parties.
So far, there has been no such consultation with Koirala refusing to call a meeting till Maoist cadres give up intimidation and return captured public property.
The rebels, on the other hand, have refused to surrender captured booty till the election is held.