Continue with Google
New Delhi, July 26:Expressing concern over the prospect of the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections in Nepal, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the Nepali leaders to work together in the larger interest of the country.
Emerging out from the meeting with PM Singh Friday, former Prime Minister and senior leader of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal said, "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has suggested that all political parties should work together in Nepal in good faith."
Nepal told Republica that he had a "very good" and cordial meeting with PM Singh. "It was a heart to heart talk," Nepal remarked. He added, "He (PM Singh) showed concern about the upcoming elections." [break]
Congratulating Nepali leaders for the successful completion of the integration of the former Maoist combatants, PM Singh has assured all-out Indian support for the upcoming elections, according to Rajan Bhattarai, the former foreign affairs advisor of Nepal.
Quoting PM Singh, Bhattarai, who was present at the meeting, further said, "India wants to see peace, development and multi-party democracy flourishing in Nepal."
Nepal, on this part, assured Singh that the constitution-writing process will be completed within a year of the CA elections. He also said that the regular interactions amongst the political leaders of Nepal will help settle differences and move in the right direction.
Former PM Nepal is on a five-day official visit to India currently at Singh´s invitation.
Development and connectivity discussed
During the meeting between PM Singh and Nepal, which lasted for about 40 minutes, PM Singh is also said to have talked about the economic development and the need for strengthen connectivity between the two countries further.
For this, India has promised to speed up ambitious infrastructure projects, which India and Nepal agreed during the visit of former PM Nepal to New Delhi in August 2009.
In this regard, former PM Nepal has urged the Indian side to expedite construction of the Dolalghat-Dhankuta portion of the Mid-Hills Highway and the Postal Highway.
The Postal Highway runs across the Tarai parallelly with the East-West Highway and is being constructed with Indian support. The construction of 62-kolometre section of the Postal Highway had started in Kailali district with the investment of Rs 1.30 billion by the government of India and Rs 720 million by the government of Nepal.
In addition, Nepal also urged India to construct the Banbasa-Kanchanpur road in Mahakali district and more urgently complete the 400 kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur Cross-Border Transmission Line Project.
Initiated in mid-2006, the cross-border transmission line between Dhalkebar of Nepal and Muzaffarpur of India was expected to be completed by 2009. But due to various technical and financial problems including the failure to upgrade and provide funding for Duhabi-Hetauda transmission line in Nepal, the cross-border transmission line project remains delayed.
The Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line will be 140 kilometers long and 100 kilometers stretch lies in Nepal. The Implementation and Transmission Service Agreement (ITSA) of this project was signed on July 21, 2011 in New Delhi.
"India will help in these projects," Rajan Bhattarai quoted PM Singh as telling Nepal. Former PM Nepal spoke about three priority areas for Nepal´s development with Singh, namely communications, road connectivity and electricity supply. Bhattarai added, "Former PM Nepal told PM Singh that first priority has been met and now the country needs to develop the other two areas."
Present during the meeting with PM Singh were Indian Foreign Secretary (FS) Ranjan Mathai, the newly appointed FS Sujata Singh, Joint secretary (North) Akhilesh Misra along with the incoming JS (N) Abhay Thakur and Indian envoy to Nepal Jayant Prasad.
From the Nepali side, the former PM was accompanied by UML general secretary Ishwor Pokharel, Bhattarai and Nepal´s Charge´ d´ Affaires to India, Khagnath Adhikari.
Meetings with FM, left leaders and Advani
On Friday, a luncheon meeting was hosted by Indian Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid in Nepal´s honor. The two discussed the bilateral relations and the upcoming elections in Nepal. The two sides have laid emphasis on giving continuity to all existing bilateral mechanisms between the two neighbours.
Earlier, Nepal also held a roundtable with various leaders of leftist parties of India, including General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Prakash Karat, National Secretary of Communist Party of India D Raja and others.
Nepal also held separate meeting with leader of opposition BJP, L K Advani, on Friday. He attended a reception in the evening hosted by the Nepal embassy in New Delhi where he interacted with some representatives of various Nepali organisations in India on the difficulties faced by the Nepali community here.
Monarchy will not return: Nepal at ICWA
Former PM Nepal told an inquisitive gathering of academicians, former ambassadors, media and civil society members that it is "impossible to bring monarchy back in Nepal" because of the democratic aspirations of the Nepali people.
"No one wants to go back to the old days," Nepal said at the ICWA (Indian Council of World Affairs) function where he delivered a lecture on "Recent Political Developments and the upcoming Constituent Assembly Elections in Nepal."
Responding to the queries of former Indian ambassador Dev Mukherjee, who was chairing the session, on issues of federalism and form of governance in the new republic, Nepal said that the basis of federalism should be multi-ethnicity and that a mixed model should be adopted in order to guarantee that all powers are not concentrated in the hands of the president. He said UML will stick to the seven-province model.
Stating that Nepali leaders have learnt a lot from the previous CA, Nepal said, "The November polls will be the second and last CA elections in Nepal," adding, "After which if we fail we will go to referendum."
Referring to the protest programmes of the CPN-Maoist to foil the CA polls, Nepal said, "If they are committed to democracy, all problems can be resolved but if they don´t participate in the upcoming polls, they will be isolated."
On UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s concept of a trilateral cooperation between India, Nepal and China, Nepal said, "For this to materialise all three sides must agree."
Related story
Together we must fight
_20200917115000.jpg)
