Nepal Maoists ask Indian firm to stop work at hydro project

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist UCPN-M has asked Indias GMR-ITD Consortium to immediately stop work at the 300-MW Upper Karnali hydro project. Partys Politburo member Khadka Bahadur Bishwakarma said it was his partys policy not to let the project continue. He warned that any defiance by the consortium may invite serious consequences. Anything can happen, he said.

This project is heavily in Indias interest at the cost of Nepal and we will not allow it to go further, he said on Monday. The warning comes at a time when the party,the largest in Nepals parliament,has begun a campaign accusing India of being expansionist and of encroaching a vast stretch of Nepals territory.

An Indian Embassy source said: We have instructed them to limit the work to whatever has been completed so far. As

per information available,around 80 per cent work

of DPR preparation of the project has been completed. The consortium had a two-and-a-half-year deadline to complete the project.