By IRNA,
New Delhi : Maoist activist and economist Chandra Kanta Poudyal has been named as Nepal’s new Ambassador to India, a post which has been lying vacant since the formation of the new government in the country.
A cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prachanda (photo) endorsed the names of Poudyal and Ram Karki, both Maoist supporters, as Nepalese Ambassadors to India and France respectively, Indian official media reported quoting Nepal’s cabinet sources.
However, these names have to be cleared by the Parliamentary Hearing Committee before they could assume the respective offices.
Poudyal, 54, who is replacing outgoing ambassador Durgesh Man Singh, is an economist like his predecessor.
Born in Jitdeurali village in Lamjung district in western Nepal, Poudyal served as headmaster at a village school in Nuwakot district for 22 years, officials said.
He was arrested and imprisoned for one year in 2003 when the Maoist insurgency was climaxed.
The post of the Nepalese ambassador to India was vacant for the past four to five months after the Maoist government recalled Singh, a Nepali Congress choice.