Govt forms high-level committees to clear border disruptions, address energy crisis
KATHMANDU: The government formed three high-level committees to combat the crisis the nation is currently facing due to dwindling fuel supplies.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Mahendra Bahadur Pandey has been authorised to talk with India to resume and ease essential supplies, including petroleum goods, as soon as possible.
A Cabinet meeting held this morning set up a committee under Minister Pandey’s coordination to initiate diplomatic efforts with India to ease supplies of essential commodities, according to Pandey.
His committee members include Minister for Commerce and Supplies Sunil Bahadur Thapa and secretaries of ministries of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Supplies, Home Affairs and Finance.
"We will consult within Nepal before beginning talks with Indian authorities soon," Pandey told THT Online after the meeting.
Sources said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would also do diplomatic lobbying to put moral pressures on India to this effect.
While talking with the Kathmandu-based American and European ambassadors and envoys at his office yesterday, Minister Pandey had indirectly sought their help to put moral pressures on India, as Nepal is facing a humanitarian crisis due to lack of essential supplies after the disruptions at Nepal-India border checkpoints for last two weeks.
A separate committee has also been formed under the coordination of Minister for Commerce and Supplies Thapa to ease the current disruption at the border points and address needs of essential goods during the upcoming festivals including Dashain, Tihar and Chhat, Minister for General Administration Lal Babu Pandit said.
Similarly, yet another committee has been set up under the coordination of Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission Govinda Raj Pokharel in order to come up with a sustainable and long-term alternative energy policy of the country.
Minister Pandit told THT Online that the Committee formed under the NPC Vice-Chair Pokharel, who is also an expert on alternative energy, would consult with the concerned stakeholders and experts and submit a comprehensive report to the government.
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