Sujata insists not to approve MRP design Friday, 13 August 2010 20:16 Share this Twitter Myspace Digg Del.icio.us Slashdot Furl Yahoo Googlize this Blinklist Facebook Wikio Export PDF Print E-mail Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sujata Koirala, who has been opposing the decision to award the printing contract of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) to a French company, has said she would not approve the MRP design at any cost. Deputy PM Sujata Koirala (File photo) "I am not going to sign the MRP contract because this is a matter of the security and sovereignty of our country," she told media persons after the cabinet meeting Friday evening. She had also told the same thing during the cabinet meeting. Koirala insisted that the French firm, Oberthur Technologies, lacks authenticity and reliability of service and claimed that the foreign secretary has been putting undue pressure on her to sign the MRP contract. Out of the total four bidders, the French company had bagged the MRP bid as it stated the lowest printing cost. DPM Koirala, who has been insisting on giving the MRP contract to India right from the beginning, is opposed to the MRP decision of the ministry which was based on the report of its evaluation team. Earlier, the government was forced to withdraw its decision to award the MRP contract to India following widespread pressure and repeated orders by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) not to go ahead with the deal as it might compromise national security, and it lacked transparency. nepalnews.com