Naya Nepal Naya Blog

The Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) of the legislature parliament has directed the government to take steps for the immediate release of Kantipur Publication's newsprint that currently remains held in the Kolkata port of India.

The parliamentary committee gave this direction after seeking clarification from the foreign and commerce ministers regarding the reason behind India stopping the shipment of over 1,000 metric tonnes of newsprint imported by Kantipur from Canada and Korea for the last 28 days and the initiatives taken by the government for its release.

PAC also directed the two ministers to take steps to resolve the issue of the blockade and to remain alert not to let incidents like these recur in the future. The committee also concluded that India has breached the Nepal-India Trade and Transit Treaty by stopping the shipment of the newsprint to Nepal.

Minister for Energy Prakash Sharan Mahat, who is fulfilling the responsibility of Foreign Minister in the absence of Sujata Koirala, Minister for Commerce Rajendra Mahato and secretaries of the two ministries were present at the committee's meeting in Singhadurbar.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister Mahat said that the government is serious regarding protecting Nepal's transit rights and informed that it had acted immediately after learning about the blockade of the newsprint. He also urged everyone not to arrive at conclusions without first learning the reason behind the delay in the shipment arriving to Nepal.

Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had directed the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi and the Consulate in Kolkata to contact the Indian agencies regarding the hold-up immediately after learning about it.


Meanwhile, Minister for Commerce Rajendra Mahato claimed that India didn't stop the shipment of the newsprint to Nepal intentionally and urged lawmakers not to criticise India unnecessarily without first learning the facts or otherwise the relationship between the two countries will deteriorate.

He said that his ministry has already contacted the Indian commerce ministry regarding the hold-up hoped that the issue would be resolved soon.

However, lawmakers present at the meeting continued to criticise India holding up the newsprint of one of the most respected publication house of the country and said that this only shows how India wants to intimidate Nepal.

They also said that the transit facility to and from the nearest sea port is a fundamental right of a landlocked country like Nepal.

On Thursday, the lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties expressed their outrage over the newsprint hold-up which led the parliamentary committee to decide to investigate the issue and summoned the foreign and commerce ministers to find out if any action has been taken to release the newsprints imported by Kantipur Publications