KATHMANDU: CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli has said that Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota does not have the right to block the US assistance project Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in the House of Representatives.

Inaugurating an election-targeted training program organized by the UML, Chairman Oli said that the speaker could not say he will not allow making MCC an agenda as doing so was beyond the Speaker’s prerogative. “The speaker cannot block the agenda by refraining to make it House agenda. He is acting beyond his scope in an unauthorized manner,” Oli said.

Recalling that the MCC was held hostage during the term of former Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara as well, Oli said that the House should be able to decide on the MCC. “Depriving the parliament from making its decision is unauthorized,” he said.

Chairman Oli said the politicians were throwing the country into in a serious geopolitical conflict over MCC. He criticized the characters of the ruling coalition, reminding that they say one thing to the public and another to MCC.