The ‘Lumbini-Sagarmatha Peace Mission 2012’ has announced that it will not accept Rs 20 million funding from the government for ‘peace trip’ following the sharp criticism from various quarters.

On Friday, the government had decided to grant Rs 20 million to the mountaineering team of ruling UCPN (Maoist) comprising Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s son Prakash for summiting Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak.

Organising a press conference at UCPN (Maoist) headquarters at Perisdanda Kathmandu, coordinator of the team Krishna KC said they will not accept the amount as the issue was unnecessarily politicised. He also urged the government to provide the  amount to the conflict victims.

Similarly, Prakash Dahal said that the criticism will not stop the expedition. “We will raise the fund from people but we will not stop our peace mission,” he said.

The CPN-UML aligned Youth Association Nepal (YAN) and Nepali Congress aligned Nepal Students Union had taken to the street protesting against the cabinet decision while criticism to the government also flooded various networking sites including facebook and twitter. nepalnews.com

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