Kathmandu, Oct 28 (IANS)

 Political parties in Nepal have unveiled their respective election manifestoes to woo voters in the upcoming Nov 19 Constituent Assembly elections.

The parties have attempted to put forward lucrative economic commitments as much as possible, irrespective of what they can really do to ensure prosperity for the poverty-ridden people of Nepal, reported Xinhua.

According to political observers, this is the same ritual by the parties of pledging economic growth and political stability during the election period which later would turn out to be baseless and empty.

Even if the parties have good intentions in promising economic growth and stability, these promises are so ambitious that they are really tough to achieve, one observer said.

Past experiences show that most of the parties have not fulfilled their promises made during the election campaign. 

Nepali Congress (NC) president Sushil Koirala said at a function in Kathmandu a week ago that his party was not allowed to rule for long enough for it to fulfill its promises.

The NC has announced that it would make agriculture, tourism, water resources and industries the foundations for "an economic revolution" while the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) identified the development of agriculture, hydro power, infrastructure, promotion of tourism and industries, and the development of human resource as the major areas for economic development.

Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) said it would work for double-digit economic growth of Nepal through rapid modernisation and commercialisation of agriculture, development of hydro power, expansion of roads, railway, airports and irrigation canals, and development of tourism, industrial and service sector.

"None of the parties have such wide specialisation to develop all of the mentioned sectors," Bishamvar Pyakurel, a senior Nepali economist told Xinhua. 

"Nor do they have any willpower to work for the betterment of all those sectors," he added.

The NC expressed confidence that the country could achieve 8 to 10 percent economic growth. The CPN-UML announced that it would create at least 300,000 jobs every year while the UCPN-M has set a road-map to achieve average economic growth of 11.9 percent in the next 40 years.

But analysts said the major parties have failed to specify what specific measures or programmes to undertake in order to achieve their avowed growth objectives.

"Nepal achieving double-digit growth in such a short span of time seems to be ridiculous as stronger economies like China and India have not been able to do so," Pyakurel said.