Indian proposal on energy cooperation draws flak from political leaders
KATHMANDU, July 18: Political leaders have criticized India’s proposal on energy cooperation and accused the government of working unilaterally on issues of national importance.
Speaking at a discussion in Kathmandu on Friday, Nepali Congress (NC) leader and former energy minister Laxman Ghimire blamed the government for keeping everyone in dark about the proposal.
Nepal’s Ministry of Energy has started an internal study on the proposal on ‘energy cooperation’ forwarded by the Indian government.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Nepal in August. Similarly, Indian Minister for External Affairs is visiting Nepal on July 25.
Minister for Energy Radha Gyawali held discussions on the proposal with former energy ministers, including Ghimire, a week ago. During the discussion, Ghimire and some others had expressed strong protest against the proposal.
“We only want to sell energy like other commodities. But we want to develop our hydropower projects ourselves,” Ghimire said, adding, “The Indian intention seems to be on occupying our rivers.”
Likewise, CPN-UML secretary Pradeep Gyawali said the government should sign energy cooperation agreement with India only after forging political consensus. “We should not enter into such a power development agreement as reported in the media,” Gyawali said, adding that agreement should be on power trade rather than on power development.
Ghimire also expressed doubts on the Indian proposal, saying that the proposal also includes bilateral agreement on renewable energy cooperation.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party leader Prakash Chandra Lohani also said there was no need to enter into any fresh agreement as the country has already signed power trade agreement with India in 1997.
Political leaders have also expressed dissatisfaction with the Indian government which has not responded to Nepal’s proposal of entering into power trade.
Nepal had forwarded a proposal for energy trade to India in 2010.
Source: Republica
