Kathmandu June 3 : CPN-UML senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has termed the plan to exploit the Chure to starve, erode and drown half of the country’s population as genocidal.

The leader also mentioned that the budget brought by the government through the ordinance included a plan to reduce trade by extracting mineralized stone, ballast and sand.

He mentioned that the provision in the budget is an open declaration to make the Terai Madhes region as a desert. “More than half of the people in the Terai region depend on the Chure region for their livelihood and Shivalik civilization,” Nepal said.

Leader Nepal also mentioned that he started the President Chure Conservation Program when he was the Prime Minister.