NC for ratifying MCC from Parliament, says Dr. Mahat

Kathmandu, Dec. 28

Former Foreign Affairs Minister and Nepali Congress leader Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat said on Saturday that the parliament must ratify MCC as soon as possible and urged one and all not to doubt and debate about it.

He said that NC was in favour of ratifying it from the parliament.

"The agreement on the programme was made in the initiation of the Nepali Congress," he said in an interaction at the Reporters Club, "It is one of the largest grant support in infrastructure development in the country which will be spent on transmission lines and road infrastructure."

He said that the country could lose the money due to dillydallying in making decision about the programme and maintained that the government must ratify the programme and move ahead.

Dr. Mahat said that although the issue should not have been taken to the parliament but since the step was incorporated in the agreement, it should be immediately ratified by the congress.

He also said that the discussion about whether to accept the support if it was the part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) was useless. "I have also heard the debates about the programme but the IPS is not a military alliance."

“Nepal has lots of benefits from MCC support. I was the foreign affairs minister when the agreement was signed,” he said.

"We have also signed the agreement on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). We have signed and should sign every agreement that can fulfil our development need and help in fulfilling the national interest," said Dr. Mahat.

He tried to clarify that Nepal did not accept the grant support to make the country a military base for the USA. “We have to think about our national interest and programmes that favour our national development goal, however we must be aware that it should not harm our neighbours,” he maintained.

Dr. Mahat linked the dispute about the MCC with the Arun III Hydroelectricity in the past.

When Nepal was planning to manage loan from the World Bank for the development of the energy project, nation-wide protests had contributed in cancelling the 900 MW project which however started after more than two decades later.

"Some people want to make the fate of MCC as that of the Arun III. They must understand that the project is not against India or China but in the interest of Nepal," he said.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 December 2019.