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Kathmandu,Friday January 21, 2000 Magh 07th, 2056.
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‘Bhattarai will
remain in office for full term’
-By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, Jan 20 - Two cabinet ministers
today said Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai would remain in his office for a full
five-year term, adding they would leave no stone unturned to protect his premiership.
Speaking at a face-to-face programme
organised by the Reporters’ Club here Thursday, Minister for Sports, Culture and
Youth Sarat Singh Bhandari and State Minister for Information and Communication Govinda
Bahadur Shah said Premier Bhattarai would remain in his office for a full five-year term.
The ministers, who are widely perceived
as close aides of Prime Minister Bhattarai, remarked this after reporters asked whether
Bhattarai would remain prime minister for a full five-year term. Bhattarai, who was
elected in May general elections, was sworn in as the premier in May.
Eight months down the line, however, his
career has turned out to be both controversial and chaotic with his own Nepali Congress
MPs expressing dissatisfaction over the mess within the cabinet. They say, Bhattarai has
continued to accommodate “tainted faces”. They also dismissed suggestions that
the cabinet is being expanded with former Speaker of the House of Representatives and NC
CWC member Ram Chandra Poudel chosen Deputy Prime Minister.
“We don’t know what’s
really happening, all we know is what all of you know,” said Minister for Industries
Om Kar Prasad Shrestha. “It’s his (PM’s) prerogative to make changes in the
government,” Minister Bhandari adds.
Dwelling on the nearly four year-old
Maoist insurgency, State Minister for Information and Communication Shah said, “the
government is all set to address the drawn out insurgency once and for all.”
“Wait and see what will happen to
Maoist insurgency,” he asserted. “Very soon we are going to kick start
our relief programmes aimed at the grassroots of Maoist-affected areas. And after that
this insurgency will cool down.”
More than 1,000 people have fallen prey
to the ‘People’s War’ waged by the underground Communist Party of Nepal
(CPN) Maoist in February 1996. The insurgency fever has gripped more than a dozen remote
hill districts, mostly in mid-western hills.
Asked whether assistant ministers
are made puppets by senior ministers, Assistant Local Development Minister Aphtab
Alam said that he was pretty satisfied with his position and the responsibilities
shouldered upon him. He instead warned the ministers to keep away from the conspiracies
most likely to be fabricated by bureaucrats. “If ministers do not remain
alert, chances are high that they will land up in bureaucrats’ fish hooks,” Shah
adds.
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