Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 12

Kathmandu witnessed a day of dramatic developments when the Nepal Supreme Court gave an “inviolable” order for the installation of Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress as the next Prime Minister by Tuesday. It overturned Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s decision to dissolve the House, second time in five months.

Previous stints

• Sher Bahadur Deuba is slated to be the new Nepal PM
• His previous stint as PM began in June 2017 and ended in February 2018
• Before that, Deuba was appointed PM in 1995, 2001 and 2004

But the basis for the Supreme Court’s calculation was undercut by conciliation between Oli and his party rival Madhav Kumar Nepal, who had walked away with 25 parliamentarians to support Deuba.

Oli had defended house dissolution

• Nepal President Bhandari dissolved the House on December 20 last year and announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli
• Oli has repeatedly defended his move to dissolve the House of Representatives, saying some leaders of his party were attempting to form a “parallel government”

Nepal has now made amends with Oli, which means Deuba of the Nepali Congress has the support of Nepali Maoists and a faction of the Madhesis which may now be inadequate.

India bags hydel contract

• The Oli government on Monday conceded to India’s demand and awarded it the Lower Arun hydel project despite competition from Chinese companies
• India had put its foot down and actively pushed for the project since it is at the tail race of the 900-MW Arun-3 hydel project, which has already been bagged by an Indian company

On a parallel track, the Oli government conceded India’s demand and awarded it the Lower Arun hydel project despite competition from Chinese companies. India had put its foot down and actively pushed for the project since it is at the tail race of 900 MW Arun-3 hydel project which has already been bagged by an Indian company.

India had argued that a “basin development approach” would result in the optimisation of resources and faster completion of project at lower cost.

The MoU was signed on Sunday in the presence of Deputy PM of Nepal Bishnu Prasad Paudel and Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra at Kathmandu and made public a day later. “It is learnt that other companies of neighboring countries were also interested in the project, but Nepal chose our central public sector undertaking based on its performance in Arun-3,’’ said RK Singh, Union Minister.

As per the agreement, the developer will have to present a detailed project report within the next two years to the Nepalese authorities.