CHITWAN: Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal in a bid to mend strained private sector-party relations provoked by erstwhile CPN Maoist Centre’s anti-private sector philosophy, remarked that his party no longer walks that line.

Addressing attendees at the 25th General Assembly of Contractors’ Association of Chitwan Dahal said, “If we keep raking up the past, we cannot get ahead. Development and prosperity are not realised with an unsafe and an unhappy private sector.”

“Back then, the party was against the private sector,” the communist leader recalled and said, “We do not walk that  line, any more.”

Likewise, Dahal stressing that it was imperative to end “setting” that prevails in bureaucracy asserted that the government staffers operate in cartels to award mega project contracts in a single package to only one contractor.

“With only one contractor in a project, profiteering is encouraged and such contractors get reckless in meeting deadlines,” Dahal said, “I directed the secretaries to put an end to this practice but staffers did not obey and I failed.”