Kathmandu, September 5

The main opposition Nepali Congress today announced its second phase of nationwide awareness campaign to inform people about weaknesses of the government.

NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma said the campaign will kick off on September 10, coinciding with BP Koirala’s 106th birth anniversary and will last for 15 days. Besides exposing corruption scandals of the government, main objectives of the nationwide awareness campaign were to enhance mutual harmony among party activists, hold dialogues with people about failure of the government led by Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to address their aspirations and disseminate NC’s recent political achievements. NC leaders from the central, regional, district, municipal, village and community level hoped to share quality time with general public during the campaign

Other objectives of the campaign were to hold deliberations at local level about people’s differences over the constitution and governance system, make NC more dedicated to the cause of people, convince people in the Tarai and Madhes that an amendment to the constitution was possible only under leadership of NC, forge alliance with intellectuals, appeal to the people to pressurise the government to act in accordance with the NCP’s election manifesto and create awareness on violence against women and children.

Spokesperson Sharma said the nationwide awareness campaign will also focus on formation of volunteer groups to be mobilised during disasters, ending anomalies in foreign employment sector, warning the government against curtailment of press freedom and distributing party’s membership to persons interested to join NC.

The second phase of the campaign called ‘Himal Pahad Tarai Madhes Jagaran Abhiyaan’, will end on September 24. The awareness campaign to be held at ward levels of all 77 districts will be interactive. No leaders will be garlanded during the campaign. On the first day of the campaign, NC has targeted to plant 34,980 trees throughout the country to contribute to protection of environment. The campaign will be conducted from district to ward levels, said a press release issued by the party.

On the last day of the campaign, district level protest rally will be organised against inflation, corruption, increased cases of rape and murder, and undemocratic bills tabled in the parliament and bad governance of the NCP-led government.

The first phase of the one-month campaign had run for a month from April 24 to May 25. NC claimed that people’s dissatisfaction with the ruling party was clearly visible during the campaign. As many as 31, 642 persons had joined the party in the course of its campaign, stated the release.