India gifts 200 vehicles to Nepal for elections

India has gifted 200 vehicles to various government institutions of Nepal including security agencies for the smooth conduct of federal and provincial assembly elections scheduled for November 20.

At a programme held at the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday afternoon, India’s ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava, handed over the vehicles to Nepal Finance Minister Janardan Sharma on behalf of the Indian government.

According to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, of the 200 vehicles, 120 will be utilized by Nepal’s security personnel to be mobilized during the polls while the remaining 80 will be used by the country’s Election Commission.

“These vehicles would prove to be useful in further augmenting the logistical arrangements of various institutions of Nepal across the country for conducting the polls,” the embassy stated in a press release.

This is not the first time that India has provided logistic support to Nepal for elections. Till date, India has gifted more than 2400 vehicles to Nepali institutions during elections. Of them, 2000 vehicles were given to Nepal Police and Armed Police Force and approximately 400 vehicles to Nepali Army and the Election Commission, the embassy said.

During Tuesday’s programme, Finance Minister Sharma lauded the Indian government’s logistic support for the crucial elections.

“Upon our request, the Indian government has gifted 200 vehicles for the upcoming elections. On behalf of the Nepal government, I would like to express sincere gratitude to the Indian government,” Sharma said.

While lauding India’s long-standing development partnership with Nepal, the finance minister also recalled the southern neighbor’s crucial support to Nepal on different occasions including the 2015 devastating earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are inching closer towards elections that are slated for November 20. This will be the second election after we promulgated the new federal democratic constitution in 2015. Elections are very important for the consolidation of democracy, peace, development, and political stability of the country,” Sharma said highlighting the importance of the upcoming elections.

Finance Minister Sharma also touched on various matters pertaining to Nepal-India bilateral cooperation and age-old socio-cultural ties. He stressed the need to further deepen bilateral cooperation for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

On a different note, Sharma said that Nepal is soon importing chemical fertilizers from India as per the government-to-government agreement.

The Nepali minister also said that the two countries need to work together to reduce the ballooning trade deficit. “We are employing various measures to reduce the trade deficit. One of them is Nepal is presently exporting its surplus electricity to the Indian market,” he said.

After handing over the keys of vehicles to Finance Minister Sharma, the Indian ambassador said India was pleased to gift vehicles for the smooth conduct of elections in Nepal.

“Nepali agencies including home ministry, finance ministry and the election commission are making preparations for elections. We hope these vehicles will be useful for these government agencies during elections. We would like to extend best wishes for the success of elections,” Ambassador Srivastava said.

The ambassador said that India and Nepal enjoy a multi-faceted and multi-sectoral development partnership that is reflective of the closeness of the people of both countries.

“The extending of these logistical provisions reflects the continued support of the Indian government for contributing to the development of people-to-people ties,” he added.

The program was attended by Binod Prakash Singh, secretary at Nepal’s home ministry, Dhiraj Pratap Singh, Inspector General of Nepal Police, Raju Aryal, Inspector General of the Armed Police Force, and senior officials of the Finance Ministry.

Nepal is gearing up for the federal and provincial assembly elections scheduled to be held on November 20 in a single phase. As per the constitutional provision, for the total 275 seats of the House of Representatives, 165 are directly elected while the remaining 110 seats are allocated under the Proportional Representational (PR) category.

Among the 550 seats of the seven provincial assemblies, 330 are elected through direct election and the remaining 220 are elected under the PR system.

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