KATHMANDU, Feb 2: Unimpressed by the performance of the government led by their own party, some Central Committee (CC) members of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) have come down heavily upon those leading the government and the party.
In their briefings to the party leadership at the ongoing CC meeting, they complained that party leaders elected at all three levels — local, provincial and federal — have detatched their relations with the party and the people. Those party leaders holding public positions are behaving as rulers instead of working as the representatives of the people and party cadres, they said.
“Chiefs and members of local governments are behaving as if they are the new king. You can imagine how their bosses in centers and provinces are behaving,” said Rajendra Rai, chief of Group 11, “There is a huge gap between public position holding party leaders and party cadres.”
Concluding that corruption is pervasive at the local, provincial and central levels and party leaders are also part of scams, some leaders have demanded a probe into the wealth of party leaders holding public positions. Over 450 NCP CC members gathered in Kathmandu for the meeting were divided into 15 groups to discuss three key issues.
The key issues include political report presented by party chairmen KP Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, organizational report, and the draft amendment of the party statute – tabled at the ongoing CC meeting.
Based on the discussions in their groups, the group leaders presented their conclusions before the top party leaders. Of the total 15 groups, 12 group leaders presented their conclusions to the party leadership on Saturday.
Most group leaders, who presented their reports to the party leaders, criticized the government for poor performance. They expressed dissatisfaction over party leadership for delay in concluding the party unification process, which was formed merging the then CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) ahead of 2017’s parliamentary elections.
They accused the government of indulging in corruption, promoting nepotism and favoritism and deviating from the electoral promises of developing Nepal as a socialist country with social justice. Top party leaders have been accused of not guiding the government towards achieving the set electoral goals despite having strong majority at all three levels of government.
A strong government is in place in center whereas except in Province 2, NCP leaders are leading the remaining six provincial governments. “Despite having strong governments in place why people are not benefited from them?” questioned another group leader Thakur Gaire, “Why it’s not even able to spend money and build development projects?”
A section of leaders in the party have strongly demanded that the party issue a code of conduct for all three sets of governments and make their activities people-centric.
Concluding that the government couldn’t fight corruption effectively, the group leaders urged the party leadership to guide the government toward ending corruption by promoting transparency and good governance.
The party’s executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is expected to respond to the concerns raised by the party leaders on Sunday afternoon.