Kathmandu, November 19

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has called three consecutive business meetings with ministers and secretaries from Wednesday to Friday, leading to apprehension that he might postpone the party secretariat meeting.

The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was supposed to hold its next secretariat meeting on Thursday.  NCP Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who had discussed the secretariat meeting issues with the PM, had publicly said recently that the secretariat meeting would be held on Thursday.

Sources close to the PM said either one of the three business meetings called by the PM or the party secretariat meeting would be postponed.

Disgruntled party leaders, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Jhalanath Khanal, want the party secretariat meeting to be held as soon as possible so that they can raise their grievances, including the government’s poor performance and the PM’s ‘unilateral decisions’ appointing his favourites in public institutions. Party sources said the PM wanted to delay the secretariat meeting to avoid criticism from disgruntled leaders.

The PM’s business meetings with ministers and bureaucrats often run for 8-10 hours.

Provincial governments are also annoyed with the federal government due to lack of umbrella laws. They have not been able to function properly due to lack of human resources and absence of umbrella laws. The government is also under pressure to amend by March 5 laws contradicting the constitution.

“Ministries have already fixed their targets and the PM will try to fathom whether those targets can be met. It is a meeting to assess the ministries’ report cards,” the PM’s Press Adviser Kundan Aryal told THT.

The PM has been following ministries’ performance from Baluwatar. He stepped out of his official residence today for the first time after he was discharged from Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Centre at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital on November 2.

According to Aryal, the PM’s business meetings with ministers and bureaucrats will ease the process of modifying necessary policies and laws. “They will review the first fiscal semester,” Aryal said. The second fiscal semester started in the second week of November. According to sources, Oli had given specific tasks to ministers and he would hold them accountable.

Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Yadav told THT that the PM would seek to know the progress made on the work plan.

In July, the PM had directed all ministers and secretaries to coordinate with each others’ ministries to complete result-oriented tasks. He had also asked them to come up with creative and innovative policies and programmes.

The Oli-led government had announced Rs 1.31 trillion budget for the current fiscal on May 29, pledging to build more infrastructure projects, increase revenue collection, create jobs, control inflation and strengthen local governments and domestic industries. The government wants to create 500,000 jobs this fiscal.

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