Kathmandu: Police have used force to contain the demonstrations organized by student unions affiliated with ruling Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Center) in Kathmandu. The students are demanding that Nepal Rastra Bank governor Maha Prasad Adhikari should resign from the post with immediate effect. A number of students have been arrested.
The protesting students claim that the central bank governor is still a member of the Finance Department of opposition CPN-UML.
Addressing the protest, Dujang Sherpa, the president of Nepal Student Union, the student wing of ruling Nepali Congress, said that governor Adhikari should resign immediately citing that a person affiliated with a political party cannot remain the central bank governor any more.
Nepal’s central bank governor faces allegations of conflict of interest over his alleged role of being a member of CPN-UML’s Finance Department.
The governor, however, has denied the allegations. The letters available to Nepal Live Today show that Adhikari had written to CPN-UML as early as 2016 requesting the party to remove his name from the list of party’s Finance Department. The CPN-UML has clarified that Adhikari is not the party’s member. [Photos by Manish Aryal]
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