Kathmandu, Jun 14 (IANS): Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is planning monthly overnight stays in the country's rural regions in order to keep himself well-informed about the people's concerns, RIA Novosti reported.

"The prime minister will visit a different rural area every month to interact with local representatives of political parties, civil society, social workers and local organisations," the Himalayan Times daily quoted a statement from the prime minister's office as saying.

Bhattarai has been prime minister since August 2011. He was previously a Maoist rebel leader and then deputy chairman of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

When the Maoists suspended their armed struggle in 2006, Bhattari took the post of finance minister.

After voluntarily laying down arms, the Maoists won about a third of seats in the Constitutional Assembly in the April 2008 elections. The assembly abolished Nepal's monarchy at its first meeting in May 2008, but several governments later, Nepal is yet to achieve political stability.

The opposition is now demanding the resignation of Bhattarai's coalition government for failing to lay the groundwork for adoption of a new Constitution.