By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Nepal Maoists have asked the government to scrap a deal between India’s GMR Energy Ltd and the state’s water resources ministry to develop a hydropower project in one of the remotest regions of the country. An MoU was signed between the two just a couple of days ago.
The Maoists have warned the ruling alliance to either scrap the deal within 48 hours or face a “deadly” protest.
Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma, chief of the Maoists’ Mechi-Karnali Rastriya Mukti Morcha that is active in the north-western region where the 309 MW project would be located, condemned the government decision to award the project to the Indian company, calling it a “suicidal” move.
“The move goes against the concept of a constituent assembly at a time the nation is gearing up to hold an election to create a new federal republic,” Bishwokarma said at a press conference called by his outfit.
Bishwokarma equated the MoU with a series of “unequal” Indo-Nepal treaties in the past, which the Maoists as well as other communist parties want to be scrapped or re-evaluated.
Bishwokarma and his organisation are also opposing two more hydropower projects, the West Seti project in which India’s PTC is the buyer, and Arun III, for which nine companies bid and the government decided to start negotiations with India’s Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam next month.
A number of NGOs, political organisations and student groups from the Karnali region is also opposing the deal. One of them, Surendra KC, described as a human rights activist and historian, alleged the deal had been arm-twisted by the Indian government.
On Thursday, GMR’s senior vice-president Avinash Shah inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nepal to develop the Upper Karnali project after agreeing to give power-starved Nepal 12 percent free energy, amounting to about 36 MW.
It beat 13 other bidders, including Reliance and Jindal, and is now set to form a join venture with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), in which the latter will get 27 percent free equity.
Nepal’s Water Resources Minister Gyanendra Karki said West Seti, Upper Karnali and a third, Upper Tamakoshi, would be developed soon without political interference.
The Maoists have already expressed their opposition to the West Seti project being developed by an Australian company.
The GMR case will be watched keenly by investors both in India and abroad.
If the group is allowed to develop the project unhindered, it would send a positive message and encourage more foreign investors.
However, if it is thwarted by political protests, coupled with the problems faced by West Seti, it is bound to create a very negative image about the efficacy of the Girija Prasad Koirala government.