KATHMANDU, JANUARY 23
CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli issued a press release warning the government against delaying local polls. Recently, the five-party ruling alliance leaders had said they had decided to hold three-tier polls - parliamentary, provincial, and local - simultaneously between mid-November and mid-March 2023.
Oli said his party was ready for elections anytime, but the government should not delay the local polls on any pretext.
Stating that the constitution did not envisage local level posts falling vacant, Oli said the ruling alliance was conspiring to delay local polls. He said ruling alliance leaders were misinterpreting provisions of Article 225 of the constitution, arguing that the provision meant that municipal and village assemblies - legislative bodies of local governments - should be formed within six months of the expiry of their tenure. Oli said his party would not tolerate any conspiracy to delay local polls.
He flayed the government for 'entering into a quid pro quo deal' with the judiciary.
He said his party had been obstructing parliamentary proceedings, but the speaker was not paying any heed to the party's demands.
He demanded that the government come clean on the status of 2.4 million COVID-19 vaccines that the Ministry of Health and Population said were unaccounted for.
Stating that prosecutors returned the investigation file of Lalita Niwas land grab case to the Central Investigation Bureau, Oli said the government was plotting to let the guilty go scot free.
Oli attempted to play down claims of achievements that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba made during his address to the nation on Friday.
Oli said all indicators pointed towards serious problems in the economic sector. He said that the government had failed to create employment, provide relief to people affected by the COVID pandemic, or control price rise. He said the trade deficit rose to 57 per cent in the first five months after the Deuba government assumed office. He added that reduction in the foreign currency reserve was worrisome and in the first six months of the fiscal year, the government did not receive any foreign assistance. He said no big development project was launched in the past six months.
He said the government was not being able to protest against India's unilateral road building in Kalapani, Limpiyadhura, and Lipulekh areas.
He said the government made a mistake by forming a committee to investigate border issues with China though previous processes confirmed that there was no border dispute with China.
The government-formed committee has not released its report, thereby creating confusion, he said.
Oli said ruling coalition partners who had signed the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement with the USA made a juvenile move by forming a committee to study the MCC deal.
Oli claimed ruling alliance leaders were saying one thing to American authorities and something else to Nepali people.
Oli had planned to convene a press conference, but issued a press release as he was infected with COVID-19.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 24, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
