Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has directed Chief Secretary Leela Mani Poudel to form a panel to hold dialogues with the student unions that are protesting the March 14 decision to hike prices of petroleum products.

Koirala’s directive comes after the agitating 17 student unions held a meeting with Prime Minister Koirala and asked to withdraw the decision on Sunday morning.

The unions including Nepali Congress (NC)-affiliated Nepal Students Union (NSU), CPN-UML-affiliated All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) and UCPN-Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Free Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNFSU-R) had handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister asking to revise the price hike decision.

Responding to the student leaders, the Prime Minister urged them not to take on the streets, but seek a solution through peaceful dialogues. “Let us correct the mistakes, but not hit the streets. Development is possible only if there are peace and stability,” Koirala’s press advisor Prakash Adhikari quoted Koirala as saying.

At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam and Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat had shared that the price increase is a compulsion for the government.

Representatives of the student unions however had suggested the government to first implement the recommendations of various task forces formed to study the irregularities at the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in the past before increasing any price.

source: the himalayan times,16 march 2014