Kathmandu, April 6
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has assured provincial leaders of his party, the CPN-Maoist Centre, that he would make efforts to rename the Koshi province.
Since the Provincial Assembly named the province Koshi, some pro-identity groups have been staging different types of protests across the province. After a man protesting against the new name of the province died during treatment in Dharan, the protests have even intensified.
In this context, the Maoist Centre which voted for Koshi in the Provincial Assembly has switched its side and now is demanding that the Koshi province be named based on the identity of local communities residing there.
Some leaders of the province met Prime Minister Dahal on Thursday morning, asking him to rename the province. In response, Dahal reportedly said his party was the first major political force in the country to raise the issue of identity and it has not dropped the agenda yet.
“He has asked us to make peaceful initiatives for the renaming at the province level and said he would make efforts on behalf of the party at the central level,” Himal Kirati, a member of the delegation, says.
