Nepal scraps passport deal with India due to Maoist pressure

KATHMANDU: In a major climb down, the Nepalese government has scrapped a controversial deal with India for printing of Machine Readable Passport from a government security press, which led to Maoist calling off their nationwide strike.

The government decision came hours before the country's apex court was to hear the case and was announced by Communication Minister and government spokesman Shanker Pokharel after a cabinet meeting.

It was an apparent that the government caved in to pressure by the Maoist who had termed the step as bowing to India.

"The government decided to accept the advice of the parliamentary committee which went into the matter and procured passports to the competitive bidding," Pokhrel said.

The government decision came four days after the Supreme Court ordered the deal to be put on hold and summoned Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and his deputy Sujata Koirala to explain the decision before it.

Under the new International Civil Aviation rules, Nepal was to issue new machine readable passports to new applicants by April 1.

Nepal government had recently decided to award the contract of supplying MRP to Indian security press at a rate of USD 4 per copy through bilateral negotiations in order to get the ultra-modern passport printed as soon as possible after the International Civil Aviation Organisation asked it to halt issuance of hand written passports.

The decision to cancel the order came after Maoists announced general strike today to oppose the government's plan to get the smart passports printed in Indian press.

As the government withdrew the decision to print the passport from India, the Maoists also withdrew their strike, the Maoist sources said.

A Parliament Committee had summoned Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal this week to furnish clarification regarding the issue of the decision to award the contract to the Indian security press to supply the passports.

Responding to the Parliament committee's query the Prime Minister had said that the decision was taken to award the contract to India keeping in view diplomatic and political relations.

After missing the deadline, the government has made a request to the ICAO to extend the time and allow the issuance of hand written passport for the time being.