2 months ago
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Prachanda lost the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives (HoR) earlier in the evening as he received only 63 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR) with 194 votes against the motion. At least 138 votes are needed to win the vote of trust. read more
 "PM Prachanda gives nod to Nepal-China rail deal day before no-confidence vote")
President Ram Chandra Paudel on Friday started consultation with constitutional and legal experts following Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ failure to secure a trust vote in Parliament and asked him to hold the fort as a caretaker till a new government is in place. File Photo- PTI
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ approved a deal to link Nepal with China by rail under Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a day before he lost a vote of confidence.
The decision carries more operational than political significance and aligns with Nepal’s participation in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s multi-billion-dollar pet infrastructure project, the MyRepublica news portal said quoting government sources.
“The Cabinet meeting held on Thursday decided to approve the ‘Strengthening the Development Cooperation in Building the Trans-Himalayan Multidimensional Connectivity Network’ agreement between Nepal and China,” the report quoted Communication Minister and the government’s spokesperson Rekha Sharma as saying.
However, a minister downplayed its immediate impact, stating, “This is an initial decision; details of project implementation and BRI modalities are yet to be finalised.”’
President Ram Chandra Paudel on Friday started consultation with constitutional and legal experts following Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ failure to secure a trust vote in Parliament and asked him to hold the fort as a caretaker till a new government is in place.
The development is expected to pave the way to forming a new coalition government led by former prime minister K P Sharma Oli, 72. Prachanda lost the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives (HoR) earlier in the evening as he received only 63 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR) with 194 votes against the motion. At least 138 votes are needed to win the vote of trust.
A total of 258 HoR members participated in the voting while one member chose no vote.
Prachanda, 69, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC), faced the trust vote as Oli-led Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) withdrew support from his government last week after inking a power-sharing deal with the largest party in the House – the Nepali Congress (NC) – led by Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The BRI has raised global concerns over China’s debt diplomacy of extending huge loans to smaller countries for unsustainable infrastructure projects. The Hambantota port, which was funded by a Chinese loan, was leased to Beijing in a 99-year debt-for-equity swap in 2017 after Sri Lanka failed to pay off the debt.
India has protested to China over BRI’s $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor flagship project as it is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
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