KATHMANDU, JANUARY 30
The issue of parliamentary ratification of the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement signed with the United States of America has caused divisions among the ruling coalition, with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba saying that he wants the Parliament to ratify the deal as soon as possible.
CPN-Maoist Centre leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who is a member of the three-member task force formed by the ruling alliance to study the MCC deal, told THT that the PM said yesterday that he wanted to secure parliamentary ratification of the MCC as soon as possible.
Shrestha, however, told the PM that the issue could be discussed only after the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided.
CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Jhalanath Khanal, who leads the ruling coalition taskforce formed to study the MCC deal, said the ruling coalition partners were yet to forge consensus on the deal. He said there were some issues on which ruling coalition partners had divergent views.
Khanal, who had led a UML task force when he was with the UML had submitted a report to the party saying that the MCC could be ratified only after some amendments were made to the deal, but the American side ruled out any possibility of amendment to the bill at this stage.
The prime minister's Chief Personal Secretary Bhanu Deuba said the there was no deadline for the government to secure parliamentary ratification of the MCC deal. Another of the PM's aide ruled out the possibility of the coalition splitting on the issue.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the House of Representatives scheduled for today was postponed till February in view of the rapid surge in COVID-19 infections across the country.
The National Assembly also postponed its meeting scheduled for tomorrow till further notice.
Assistant Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Dasharath Dhamala said the HoR meeting was postponed mainly because of the rapid surge in COVID transmission.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 31, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
