President of the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) Sher Bahadur Deuba has taken initiative to forge cross-party strategy to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deuba, who is a former prime minister (PM), has talked with other former PMs including Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, Baburam Bhattarai and former chairman of the council of ministers Khila Raj Regmi over the phone.
"President Deuba has talked with former PMs to seriously work in unison to save Nepal and Nepalis from the coronavirus crisis," a source at Deuba's secretariat told Setopati.
NC Spokesperson Bishwo Prakash Sharma confirmed that Deuba talked with former government heads. "The government is making its effort. It is also an effort to give a common message in a way to inspire the country even though the former PMs are not in any position now," Sharma said. He revealed that everyone has taken Deuba's proposal in a positive way and stressed to move forward in unison at the time of crisis.
Deuba told Dahal, who is also chairman of ruling CPN, and senior CPN leaders Khanal and Nepal if the government has any weaknesses, they should be corrected. "The current crisis is for the whole Nepal and Nepalis. It is crisis for the whole humanity instead of one party or another. President said the efforts that government have made should be intensified further in a serious manner," Sharma elaborated.
Deuba has been issuing press statements almost every day drawing the government's attention to broaden the scope of testing pointing at the rising number of infections. He has demanded with the government for relief for those working on daily wages and students living on rent, and waiving interest for three months for those who are doing business borrowing less than Rs 2 million.
A total of nine persons have been infected in Nepal until now and one of them have already returned home after recovery.
