KATHMANDU: Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba has been endeavoring to get the US grant of US$ 500 million ratified by the parliament as politics and civic groups in Nepal are sharply divided on the issue.

Prime Minister Deuba on Saturday afternoon met with former Prime Minister KP Oli at his residence in Balkot and asked him to cooperate with him to resume the stalled parliamentary session and ratify the MCC at the earliest.

PM and Nepali Congress President Deuba has already hinted that he needs to garner the support of Oli to ratify the MCC from the Parliament.

A meeting of the high-level political coordination committee of the ruling coalition held on Thursday had entrusted Prime Minister Deuba to hold talks with the leader of the main opposition party to avoid the House disruption.

However, ruling partners – CPN Maoist Center and the Unified Socialist Party – have been insisting that the MCC agreement should not be endorsed without amendment.

It should be noted that the government has formed a three-member task force headed by CPN (Unified Socialist) senior leader Jhala Nath Khanal.

While Khanal and Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha (another member in the task force) want to make some amendments in the agreement to ratify it, another member, who is also the Communications Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, is in favor of ratifying it.

It should be noted that Chinese Ambassador Hou Yaniqi recently met with Khanal at the latter’s residence and discussed the issue.