Nepal scraps passport deal with India due to Maoist pressure

Shirish B Pradhan
Kathmandu, Apr 12 (PTI) Succumbing to pressure from
Maoists, Nepal has scraped a controversial deal with India for
printing of Machine Readable Passport from a government
security press.
After a cabinet meeting, Nepal's Communication Minister
and government spokesman Shanker Pokharel told reporters
Sunday that the government has decided to withdraw the
decision to print the passport in an Indian security press.
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 on Monday 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.
Nepal's Supreme Court has also issued an Interim Order
to halt the process of printing until it gave a full verdict
in the matter.
The Public Accounts' Committee of the Parliament also
asked the government to withdraw the decision to print the
passport in Indian security press and to initiate fresh tender
for the printing.
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.
Nepal government has already missed the deadline of
April 1 to issue the passports set by International Civil
Aviation Organisation.
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. PTI