Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala smells the whiff of conspiracy in the air. On Thursday she said the government was unable to implement the use of machine readable passports due to a conspiracy. The process of handing the contract of machine readable passports to India was halted on Wednesday by a Supreme Court order. Nagarik writes:
“We wanted to implement the machine readable passports with good intentions,” she said. “But there has been a huge conspiracy here, which has created a lot of confusion.”
She said it was a government-to-government deal; no individuals played any special role.
The prime minister has taken a slightly defensive mode. Two days after saying the contract was given to India because he wanted to please his coalition partners, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal mentioned that the deal was actually awarded to India because there was a possibility for getting technological assistance. Kantipur writes:
“After holding government–level talks with India about the printing of the passports, we moved the process ahead after it looked like there was a possibility of assistance for implementation machines and atechnical package.”
All this politics while a fire is ravaging in the rest of the country. Literally. Fires were reported in 213 places on Wednesday, an alarming rise from last year. Kantipur compares this year’s numbers with the last.
| 2009 | 2010 | |
| April 2 | 0 | 64 |
| April 3 | 2 | 142 |
| April 4 | 0 | 168 |
| April 5 | 5 | 151 |
| April 6 | 4 | 141 |
| April 7 | 44 | 213 |
A lot of forests in Terai are prone to fire during the months of April and May due to the dry weather.
“The fire started early this year,” South Asia Fire Control Network’s Sundar Sharma told Kantipur. “It looks like it’s peak season already.”
Forest Ministry officials have said the fire has spread so widely because of their inability to control fire in remote forests.
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