KATHMANDU: Parliamentarians have aired their views in support of the United States grant Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) at a meeting of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party (PP) held at Lhotse Hall in parliament building in New Baneshwor on Tuesday.

Former Finance Minister and NC leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat told journalists that parliamentarians at the PP meeting said MCC should be given a parliamentary endorsement as it was in favor of the national interest and will also contribute to the economic development of the country.

Responding to journalists’ query while emerging out from the meeting after presenting his views, Dr Mahat said, “Rumors are being created and spread against MCC. This is not under any military strategy. All these are merely baseless assumptions and rumors. I have put my remarks in the meeting in this line. Other friends are also airing their views on the topic.”

Noting that the MCC project has been made a sponsored propaganda citing it as an anti-national agenda, he underlined the need to cut through the misconception and propping up the project. As MCC project is in favor of the country’s interest, it should be endorsed from the parliament, he added.

Dr Mahat informed that he urged the NC parliamentarians to clear misconceptions against the MCC project. Leader Mahat further said that the MCC was not under Indo-Pacific military alliance but merely a development project.

Saying that MCC endorsement should not be delayed anymore, he noted the project should be endorsed within the extended deadline of February 28 citing that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Center) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ had already written a letter to the MCC office calling for its deadline extension.