The two main ruling parties, CPN (Maoist) and Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), on Sunday formed a high-level committee to ensure better coordination between them and advise the government on important issues.

A meeting of senior leaders of the two communist parties decided to form the 12-member committee with senior Maoist leader Mohan Baidya and former UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal as coordinators.

The committee comprises UML leaders K.P Sharma Oli, Bam Dev Gautam, Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Bidhya Bhandari and Bhim Rawal while the Maoist representatives include Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Dev Gurung and Dina Nath Sharma.

Prime Minister and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and UML general secretary Jhala Nath Khanal were also present at the meeting held at the UML parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar.

Top leaders of the two parties will again meet tomorrow to further discuss ways to resolve their differences on a number of issues including the tricky issue of army integration, leaders said.

Some UML leaders have voiced dissatisfaction over the formation of the army integration special committee, which they say was formed without consultation between the two parties.

Apart from that, the youth wings of the two parties have engaged in violent clashes in different parts of the country in recent times. In the wake of frequently clashes between the Maoist Young Communist League (YCL) and UML’s Youth Force (YF) Home Minister Gautam recently called for scrapping of both groups. nepalnews.com mk Nov 02 08