KATHMANDU, JANUARY 21
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today said that the government was committed to strengthening lower tiers of the government and holding parliamentary, provincial, and local elections within a year.
Addressing the nation today, the PM urged the public and other stakeholders to prepare for the elections, but he did not say when the elections would be held.
On Wednesday, CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal floated the idea of holding parliamentary elections in April and local polls in November-December.
Dahal's proposal angered the main opposition CPN-UML which said Dahal's proposal was a ploy to delay local polls. The UML said that it would not accept any proposal to delay local polls, as the tenure of local governments would end in May.
In his address, the PM listed highlights of the government's performance in the past six months and said that the government was moving in the right direction. He said the gains made by his government within a short span of time had prepared the base for political stability, development, good governance, and prosperity. The PM claimed that ever since he took the mantle of the government economic sector witnessed a rapid expansion.
He listed road building, addition of electricity to the national grid, economic assistance for people affected by natural disasters, e-governance, expansion of telephone network, and distribution of e-passports as the government's major achievements.
Although, the PM said the government would resolve the citizenship issue and end the stalemate in the Parliament, he did not offer any credible plan to do so. In the absence of a new federal citizenship law, thousands of eligible citizens, particularly children of citizens by birth, have been denied citizenship.
Moreover, the main opposition party has been obstructing parliamentary proceedings and repeatedly boycotting all-party meetings called by the PM and Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota.
The PM said the government was committed to strengthening lower tiers of the government.
Stating that the inoculation drive was continuing as per the government's commitment to provide vaccines to all citizens by mid-April, the PM said the government would begin administering booster doses of the COV- ID-19 vaccines to those above 60 within the next three weeks. The PM said that the government had provided both doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 59.6 per cent of population and single shots to 78.3 per cent of population. He said 1.8 million jabs were provided to children between 12 and 17 years of age and soon the government would start inoculating children between five and 11 years of age.
The PM said the government had enough foreign currency to pay for import of goods up to 6-8 months.
He said the government had taken the initiative to procure fertilisers through government-to-government process so that farmers could get fertilisers on time.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 22, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
