The royal regime’s determined effort to frame former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba in the multi-million dollar Melamchi drinking water project suffered a major blow as the lead project donor, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), found no irregularity in the award of the contract.Almost coinciding with the ADB report, Norway withdrew its grant from the multi-donor $464 million project, which appears to be on the verge of collapse, the first major casualty of the February 1 royal coup. A Norwegian Embassy statement linked the withdrawal to the coup.The ADB’s Integrity Committee findings came days before the Royal Commission on Corruption (RCC) was to deliver its verdict indicting top politicians and bureaucrats on charges of corruption in awarding the contract.
