NCP Secretariat meet deferred yet again

PM Oli is for ratification of MCC pact thru Federal Parliament without any amendment

Kathmandu, June 14

The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) postponed its Secretariat meeting today as Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli wanted it to be rescheduled.

The meeting was supposed to discuss Nepal’s Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement signed with the United States of America.

Prior to this also the party had postponed its Secretariat meeting due to PM Oli’s reluctance to discuss the issue.

A majority of the NCP Secretariat members want amendment to the MCC agreement before it is ratified by the Parliament. PM Oli, who has fallen in minority in the party’s Secretariat, wants the agreement to be ratified even without any amendment. NCP Secretariat Jhala Nath Khanal told THT that the PM had been deferring Secretariat meeting in his attempt to avoid discussion on MCC but, unless the party took a call on the MCC agreement, it would not move forward.

In the fiscal budget, the government has pledged to build Lapsiphedi-Ratmate-Hetauda and Lapsiphedi-Ratmate-Damauli-Butwal 400 kV electricity transmission line and has mentioned MCC’s Rs 5.73 billion under the foreign aid section.

But NCP leaders close to the party Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal have opposed the government decision to receive fund under the MCC programme, without the Parliament ratifying the agreement.

Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada told the House that the decision to receive fund under MCC agreement would be contingent upon the Parliament’s decision to ratify the agreement.

On May 30, NCP Secretariat had decided to halt MCC related projects until the Parliament approved of the MCC deal.

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A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 15, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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from The Himalayan Times https://ift.tt/3d3XNgD