Sujata proposes passport works to India

KATHMANDU, March 17: Ministry of Foreign Affairs has proposed the cabinet to award the machine readable passport supply contract to India that has offered to supply high-tech passports at $4 apiece.



Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sujata Koirala tabled a "direct" proposal to this effect during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Given the seriousness of the proposal, the Cabinet did not take up the issue in the morning, saying that it needed further discussion. [break]



Another Cabinet meeting was called for 6 p.m. to decide on the proposal, but the evening meeting was put off. The evening meeting was also supposed to pick a new governor. "As there was no consensus on the candidate for the post of governor, the meeting was put off," said a senior minister.



The Foreign Ministry´s proposal contradicts with the direction of the Public Accounts Committee of parliament. The committee has ordered the ministry to revive a canceled international bidding process for the passports.



The Cabinet has received the proposal 14 days before the April-1 deadline to introduce the machine readable passports (MRPs. Any non-machine readable passports to be issued after March 31 will be considered invalid for international travel as per the provision of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency.



According to an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, India has offered to give technical cooperation needed for MRP project, training to personnel who will handle MRP works and other needed machines under the quoted price. The date of the next Cabinet meeting is yet to be decided, said the minister.

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