Ex-envoy plans to make EPG report public if Prime Ministers of India, Nepal fail to receive it

Nepals former envoy to India Bhesh Bahadur Thapa has urged the Prime Ministers of the two countries to accept a report prepared by the Eminent Persons Group EPG as soon as possible, saying its content would be made public unilaterally by the Nepalese side if the two premiers fail to receive it.The EPG was formed in 2016 by the two governments to study and review past agreements and understandings reached between Nepal and India.

Nepal's former envoy to India Bhesh Bahadur Thapa has urged the Prime Ministers of the two countries to accept a report prepared by the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) as soon as possible, saying its content would be made public unilaterally by the Nepalese side if the two premiers fail to receive it.

The EPG was formed in 2016 by the two governments to study and review past agreements and understandings reached between Nepal and India. The EPG completed its task of drafting the report in July 2018 within the mandated time frame.

After the report was prepared, it was decided to first submit it to the Indian Prime Minister and then to the Nepalese Prime Minister. However, as the Indian side could not arrange time to submit the report to the Prime Minister the EPG report is currently lying in the hands of the conveners of the EPG.

''It is a sad thing not being able to make public the report prepared by experts from both the countries with hard work with a view to taking the mutual interest to a new height,'' said Thapa, Nepal's Coordinator of the EPG.

Thapa, former Nepalese Ambassador to India, said that the report will be made public unilaterally, if both the Prime Ministers of India and Nepal fail to receive it.

''As it will not be appropriate to confine the report in the hands of the EPG for indefinite period, we the members of the Nepalese team of EPG have through an informal discussion decided to make the report public if it could not be handed over to both the Prime Ministers,'' Thapa said in his statement on May 23.

His statement came less than two weeks after India's Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said that he was not aware of the contents of the report submitted by the EPG as the government of India is yet to receive it.

''A high level official from India speaking at a press conference told journalists that since the EPG report was prepared by an independent group consisting of experts from both the countries, I have no information regarding the matter,'' Thapa said without naming the Foreign Secretary, who was till recently the Indian Ambassador to Nepal.

Such remarks made by a responsible high ranking official of India has put a question mark on the future of the report, said Thapa.

''As the Indian side has been showing negligence to receive the report and both the governments are observing silence about it, the task of formally handing over the report to both the governments seems to be very challenging,'' Thapa added.

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