Nepal’s rulling allies come up with a counter plan

Chitra Raj Bhandari, KATHMANDU: Nepal’s ruling coalition partners have decide to expand the cabinet if inter-party consensus on outstanding issues is not reached during Thursday’s four-party meeting.

A meeting of the ruling allies held in Kathmandu on Wednesday morning took such a decision a day after the opposition parties had warned to hit the streets if their 7 point demands were not fulfilled.

Countering the 7 point demands, presented on Tuesday by UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, which focuses on removing Bhattarai government from power and putting up a consensus government, the ruling allies decided that they would work out on a separate political course if Thursday’s four-party meet fails to take a common course.

The alliance, formalized as Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA) gave the responsibility of holding talks with the opposition parties to its chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal.

Spokesperson of the FDRA Prem Bahadur Singh informed that the FDRA would go ahead with its earlier plans to organize general assembly in five development regions across the nation.

Along with the Singh said that the government will appoint chiefs to all vacant constitutional bodies and initiate actions to bring full budget.

He said that stalling the budget would be disastrous to the already limping national economy and claimed that the government will not hold the budget hostage to political consensus.

However the meeting has also stressed on resolving the issue of budget and unity government formation in a package.