Province 5 Speaker calls for resolving capital issue through consensus

Rupandehi, Jan 1 : Province 5 Speaker Purna Bahadur Gharti has said the issue of province capital should be resolved on the basis of political consensus.

Speaking at a face-to-face programme organised by the Reporters’ Club Province 5 here today, he said the issue of determination of the (permanent) capital of the province was a weighty one and the matter of what sort of capital we need was more important than its location. He was of the view of finalising the place for the capital at the earliest, addressing the public sentiments.

“A special committee has been formed to resolve the issue,” he said speaking at the program presided by the Ramkumar Chhetri, calling upon all State Assembly members to rise above the personal interests to find a way out.

Main opposition Nepali Congress leader Baladev Sharma Pokhrel presenting his views on the issue said ‘Rupandehi’ could be the best location for the province capital and ‘Lumbini’ was the suitable name for it. He was hopeful of getting all’s support to his proposal.

Federal Socialist Forum chief whip Santosh Pandey presented the name of ‘Rupandehi’ as the province permanent capital with no other appropriate options. The delay in declaring the permanent capital had drawn the concern from international community as well, he informed the programme, giving his support to the proposal about Rupandehi as the location of the province capital and ‘Lumbini’ as the province’s name.

As he claimed, the international community is also known about Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Budhha, and Rupandehi is fit for being the permanent capital due to the aspect of infrastructure development.

Though the very first session of the first Constituent Assembly (CA) on May 28, 2008 declared Nepal to be federal democratic republic and the Nepal’s Constitution- 2015 promulgated by the second CA institutionalised it, so far, only three provinces (Gandaki, Karnali and Far-Western), out of seven, have finalised their name and permanent capital and remaining four are still struggling to sort out the issues.