Deuba hits at 'temporary' Nepal govt for vitiating consensus

Nepali Congress chief and opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba today denounced Nepal's government led by Prime Minister KP Oli for "vitiating" the "environment of consensus" by recalling its envoy to India.
Participating in a discussion on the government's policy document in the Parliament, Deuba hit out at the government for "vitiating the environment of consensus" after it recalled the ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, who is also a senior Nepali Congress (NC) leader.
The Oli government has sacked Upadhyaya for allegedly conspiring to topple the coalition government and for visiting western Nepal with Indian ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae.

Nepalese officials have accused Upadhyaya working "against national interest".
Upadhyaya continues to stay put in his post in New Delhi, and has reportedly denied he colluded with India to topple the Oli dispensation back home.
The former prime minister Deuba said the biggest challenge Nepal faces today was the implementation of the budget.

"It would be ambitious to say that one would do so without forging consensus, which was unbelievable," Deuba said adding that a "temporary" government bringing highly ambitious programmes was a mockery of the parliamentary system.
Deuba also denounced the government move to hold local body elections "in the present situation."

"How appropriate is it for the government to say that it would hold the local body elections when the government has itself constituted a commission for delineating the border and number of local bodies and when the commission has not yet submitted its report," Deuba wondered.
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The NC president also criticised the government for announcing ambitious plans like producing 10,000 megawatt power in 10 years without a proper homework. The government policy document failed to include any plan of action to expedite hydropower projects while making the announcement.
"It is not proper to talk ambitiously of electricity development without forging agreement on the power transmission line," Deuba said.

He reminded the government to think whether one could see results by bringing policies and programmes without any basis.
He said there was shortage of essential goods in the country, black marketing and corruption thrived even after the the border blockade was lifted and the post-earthquake reconstruction work was in limbo.
"Earthquake victims have not received even blankets in the name of relief, a great injustice has been done to them."
It would be a joke to talk of economic prosperity within five years in a country which has achieved less than 1 per cent of economic growth rate, Deuba said.

President Bhandari has on Sunday unveiled the government's policies that accorded priority to self-dependency and post- quake reconstruction. Bhandari announced that the fiscal year will be the "year of departure towards prosperity".
The government announced that, through the programmes, the upcoming five years will be theperiod of attaining prosperity and the country will be transformed into a developing country from a least-developed country within a decade.