ITAHARI, May 2 — Stating that the country should make maximum use of its abundant water resources, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on Wednesday that he has requested Indian leaders to invest in the 900 megawatts Arun III Hydropower Project.
“During my visit to India, I have urged Indian leaders to invest in Arun III and they were positive about the proposal,” said Dahal addressing a mass gathering organized by his party in Itahari to mark the International Workers’ Day.
Dahal, who had already concluded his speech and was about to take his seat, returned to the microphone and sought a few more minutes to speak about his talks with Indian leaders on the issue of Arun III project.
After completing his four-day visit to the southern neighbor, Dahal returned home on Tuesday. He said that his focus during the visit was to request the Indian side to invest in hydropower projects in Nepal.
“The water from our country has been flowing to India and is being wasted. So we need to make use of our water resources and we can do it by strengthening our relations with India and China,” said Dahal.
Dahal, who had visited China prior to Delhi, also said that he had proposed the northern neighbor to construct three link-roads connecting India and China through Nepal. According to him, such roads would be built along the eastern, central and western regions of the country.
Dahal also said that he had proposed Chinese leaders to build railway from Lhasa to Lumbini. He said it was not possible to develop mega hydropower projects, railways and highways without support from the two neighbors.
On a separate note, Dahal urged communists and patriotic forces to join hands for the coming election. Saying that the forces that are for status quo would join Nepali Congress-led alliance, he said his party would lead the progressive forces.
“We communists can have two-thirds majority if we stand together. Therefore I urge the true communists and revolutionaries to come under a single umbrella,” he said. He argued that an alliance of progressive forces has become a need of the time to defeat the forces that are in favor of status quo.
“History has given UCPN (Maoist) the responsibility of leading progressive forces and as a leader of the party and I am ready to fulfill the duty,” he said.
Also, UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai urged CPN-UML and other communist parties to join the progressive alliance in the coming elections and not to forge election coalition with the Nepali Congress.
“If the UML claims itself to be a progressive force, it must join the left alliance. It would be suicidal for the UML to join the NC-led alliance,” said Bhattarai addressing the same gathering.
Source : Republica
