The third round of talks between the government and the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NFIN) scheduled for today could not take place.

The talks were cancelled as NFIN talks coordinator Dr. Om Gurung was out of town while government’s talks coordinator minister Mahantha Thakur was also not in a condition to attend the meeting due to health problem.

Next meeting is expected to take place after three days, according to NFIN.

Second round of talks had ended inclusively after the NFIN demanded that the government stop the process to amend the interim constitution.

NFIN, the umbrella organisation of indigenous communities, has been carrying out agitations over the past few weeks demanding ethnicity-based federal system, proportional representation of indigenous nationalities in the forthcoming constituent assembly polls and linguistic freedom, among others.

The federation has said its protest programmes and the dialogue with the government will go side by side.