Nepal's decision to give MRP printing contract to India challenged in court

Kathmandu, Apr 7 (ANI): A writ petition was filed before Nepal's Supreme Court on Tuesday against a government decision to award the contract for the printing of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) to an Indian government-owned firm.

Advocate Hem Mani Subedi filed the petition, stating that the decision to award the contract to India without bidding was illegal.

He said this decision would pose a threat to national security.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Nepal's Parliament has already objected to the decision.

On Monday, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said the government has awarded the contract for political and diplomatic reasons.

He also said the government had failed to move ahead with a decision of the PAC tender process due to time constraints.

The PAC had quizzed both Nepal and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala over the decision.

Earlier, the PAC's had directed the Foreign Ministry to call for a fresh tender bid to print the MRPs and hand over the contract on the competition basis.

Disregarding the PAC directive, the cabinet gave its approval to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to grant the contract to print MRPs to an Indian company on March 19, Nepalnews reported. (ANI)