Kathmandu, Feb 27 (PTI) Nepal’s ruling alliance is likely to back the USD 500 US-grant Millennium Corporation Challenge (MCC) programme during a discussion on the contentious issue in Parliament on Sunday.
A meeting of the ruling coalition partners is underway at the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s official residence here to discuss ways to ratify the US grant assistance agreement.
The Parliament session is scheduled to start discussion on the MCC agreement on Sunday. Earlier, it was scheduled to be held on Friday but was postponed till Sunday after political parties failed to reach a consensus on the issue.
It is learnt that parties in the ruling alliances, mainly Nepal Communist Party Maoist Centre led by Pushpakamal Dahal “Prachanda” and CPN-Unified Socialist led by Madhav Kumar Nepal have agreed to cast votes in favour of the USD 500 million US grant.
Earlier, both Prachanda and Nepal had decided to vote against the MCC agreement in the Parliament if voting took place for its ratification.
The Nepal Parliament is scheduled to take up the discussion on the US-grant assistance pact on Sunday.
Nepal and the US in 2017 signed the MCC agreement, meant for building Nepal’s infrastructure such as electric transmission lines and improvement of national highways.
It was tabled in the lower house of Parliament on Sunday for ratification amid vociferous protests against it from some political parties. The US government has set February 28 as the deadline to endorse the grant project from Parliament.
The MCC is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the US Congress in 2004. It is an independent agency separate from the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Nepal’s political parties are sharply divided on whether to accept the US grant assistance under the MCC agreement. The Leftist political parties have been opposing the pact, saying it is not in the national interest and is meant to counter China.
Prime Minister Deuba, who is also chief of ruling Nepali Congress, had started hectic political consultations after he failed to convince major parties of the ruling alliance – CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-Unified Socialist- regarding the endorsement of the USD 500 million project from the Parliament.
Deuba also held consultations with the main opposition CPN-UML seeking its support for the ratification.
However, UML chairman K.P. Sharma Oli set preconditions to extend his party’s support for the ratification.
He asked Deuba to remove the Speaker of the Parliament and take action against 14 Lawmakers belonging to the CPN-Unified Socialist, the breakaway faction of the CPN-UML as preconditions.
Seeing the possibility of alliance between Nepali Congress and main opposition UML, the ruling coalition partners Maoist Centre and CN-Unified Socialist have backtracked their earlier stance and expressed willingness to back the government during the voting for ratification of the MCC compact in the Parliament.