Kathmandu, Dec. 31: Talks between the government and the 9-Left parties to resolve the two-day nation-wide closure (bandh) on Monday and Tuesday has failed. And Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ramchandra Poudel said that the government has made all arrangements to see that no ontoward incident takes place on these days.

Poudel was talking to the press after the talks ended inconclusively today. The Left parties had insisted on Poudel’s resignation. The government had turned down the demand saying resignation was not a solution to the current problem.

The talks were held at the official residence of the Prime Minister at Baluwatar. Present at the talks were Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ramchandra Poudel, Minister for Finance and Defence Mahesh Acharya, Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad Bastola and Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta.

From the Left parties, leaders of eight left parties, including Bamdev Gautam, General Secretary of the CPN-ML and Pari Thapa of the Rastriya Jan Morcha had participated.

After the talks broke down, Pari Thapa said they had demanded the Home Minister’s resignation on moral ground.

“In a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister before the talks, he had said the demands would be looked into positively, but during the talks the government refused to oblige,” said Thapa.

Bamdev Gautam said they would now go for the bandh forcefully.

Although the Left parties had also put up other demands, the talks had focussed on only the resignation issue.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister said that the bandh called by the 9-left parties was ill-timed and against the interest of the people and country as it comes immediately after violent incidences last week aimed at creating misunderstandings between two friendly countries. He accused some political parties and their sister organisations of being involved in last week’s violence that claimed five lives.

He said the Nepali Congress has shunned bandh as a mean of protest as it creates difficulties to the public and put the country’s economy as a whole at risk. He also called the other parties to do so the same.

He said the government was positive towards their other demands such as reduction of the prices of petroleum products, compensation to those killed in recent violence and the price of the food grains, but they stuck solely to their political demand. “Thus the talks failed,” he said.

He has urged all to help the government to foil the bandh and said the government.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister said the committee formed by the government to probe into the violence of last week would look into all aspects of the violence. The committee will submit its report within 15 days and it will be made public. The Deputy Prime Minister told The Rising Nepal that the committee would also look into the role of the press in the recent incident.