Pokhara, March 20

Gandaki Province Chief Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung today said the government had banned the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal for not talking to the government.

Felicitating senior journalist Bhairab Risal with the Social Journalism Award-2019 and journalist Manita Rai with Female Journalism Award in Pokhara, Gurung said that the door was still open for the Netra Bikram Chand-led party to come to the table for dialogue.

Gurung said that Chand’s party had unleashed donation terror and warned the chiefs of local levels to allocate five percent of the total budget for them. He added that the government had to ban Chand’s party as their donation terror, extortion and attack on Ncell towers had made foreign investors reluctant to invest in Nepal.

Gurung added that the government had been able to bring CK Raut into mainstream politics. “If Raut and his renamed party act in violation of the constitution, the government can and will control their activities at any cost,” Gurung stated. He asked opposition parties and critics not to invite dispute related to the 11-point agreement reached between Raut and the government.