Senior leaders of the ruling coalition have expedited parleys of late to forge a common ground on America’s $ 500 million grant under Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC).
Over the past few days, top leaders of the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), and CPN (Unified Socialist) have been meeting on a daily basis to find a common ground. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also NC President, is in favor of endorsing the MCC without any delay, while CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal are buying time.
Dahal and Nepal have conveyed a message to the PM that they are in favor of endorsing the MCC but they have to convince their respective party colleagues. Several Maoist leaders are pressing Dahal not to endorse it from Parliament. On January 31, PM held consultations with Dahal and Nepal about tabling MCC in the full House. Earlier on January 29, parties held extensive talks on the MCC.
During a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal at the former’s official residence in Baluwatar on Monday morning, Dahal said that the MCC should not be endorsed in its existing form.
A bill concerning MCC was registered in the Parliament Secretariat in 2019 which is yet to be tabled in the Parliament. PM Deuba was in favor of tabling the MCC in the Parliament session that was scheduled to take place on January 30. PM Deuba has been saying that he would not force them to vote in favor of MCC and he should be allowed to table it in the Parliament.
However, the Parliament session was postponed for 10 days. Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota has conveyed the message to top cross-party leaders that he would not table the MCC bill in the Parliament with forging consensus among the parties.
Along with consensus among parties, speaker Sapkota has also been saying that the CPN-UML should remove parliamentary obstructions.
America has not set any specific deadline but is urging Nepali leaders to act on MCC as soon as possible. The MCC is becoming complicated because there are growing interests of some outside powers on it, said a ruling party leader.
