Kathmandu, July 12: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ said that the economic situation of the country was improving gradually.
The Prime Minister said this while addressing the House of Representatives (HoR) today in course of seeking a vote of confidence today.
Dahal, who is also the Chairman of the CPN (Maoist Centre), is seeking a vote of confidence for the fifth time in the HoR in 18 months.
PM Dahal, delivering his address, further said that there were notable improvements in the areas of implementation of constitution, strengthening of federalism, revival of national economy, increase in productivity, job creation, promotion of good-governance and public service delivery during his leadership.
According to him, his government passed with flying colours when it comes to concerns and responsibilities such as establishment of citizen-friendly governance system, combating corruption, safeguarding national interest among other.
During his leadership, he shared that the National Coordination Council, Administrative Coordination Council and thematic committees were made further active to manage coordination and interrelationship among the three tiers of the government.
On a different note, he claimed that the country has come out of economic crisis. “I said in statistics that all our economic indicators were becoming positive. Hence, the laxity seen in our national economy will not continue,” the Head of the Government asserted.
He also said that he made tremendous efforts to make the budget formulation process inclusive, scientific and objective and remarked that this achievement gained in a year and half of period was not a small achievement at all. “I can firmly say that the country has come out of economic crisis.”
Similarly, PM Dahal viewed that constitution amendment was a complex and sensitive issue and thus all sides concerned should be serious towards it.
He commented that the new alliance between the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) was formed with the intent to abolish federalism. He proposed amendment in the constitution honouring women, Dalit, indigenous communities, Madheshi and minorities among others.
He emphasized increase in the representation of women and Dalit and oppressed and impoverished communities among others representation in the State apparatus.
According to him, those whose representation in the state apparatus was symbolic and at the behest of the autocratic rulers, their rights have been ensured. Stating that the concerns of women’s representation was neither a topic for discussion among the political parties and nor a discourse for the State in the past, he cited that the constitution of Nepal at present ensures at least 33 per cent women’s representation in the provincial and federal government and at least 40 per cent in the local level.
“Whether to support me or not is entirely the matter of your discretion but I have faith in the people and the belief that I will receive their support,” the PM said, addressing the parliamentarians.
Door has opened for regional power trade
The Prime Minister has said that the door has been opened for Nepal in the regional power trade.
Stating that the trend of construction of transmission line has been moved ahead in a speedy manner, he said, “The achievements made in the energy sector are alluring. The country was freed of the frightening power outages during my second stint as the Prime Minister. At that time, the topic of freeing the country of load-shedding, which no one could imagine of, had become possible.”
He further added, “There is no citizen who does not have access to electricity. The installed capacity of electric energy has reached around 3,200 megawatts while some 500 megawatts power is in the process of adding to this in some months. Power purchase agreement has been reached so far for developing hydropower projects of around 10,000 megawatts capacity, keeping the participation of the private sector in the hydropower sector in top priority.”
The PM claimed that Nepal has at present reached to a place where the capacity to generate power has reached around 1,000 megawatts annually.
