MAKAWANPUR, Jan 5: Amid dissatisfaction expressed by lawmakers of both the ruling and the opposition parties over the directive made by Kathmandu about the name and capital city of Province 3, both ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) have intensified internal discussions to fix the permanent capital of the province.

On Friday, the ruling party held discussions on the issue during a meeting of its Parliamentary Party (PP) held in Hetauda. Likewise, the main opposition discussed the issue in the meeting of its parliamentary party in Kathmandu.

As the winter session of the Provincial Assembly of Province 3 is set to commence on Monday, both the ruling party and main opposition party are busy taking opinions of their lawmakers and devising their strategies to present themselves in the House meetings that will decided the permanent capital and name of the province. 

During NCP's PP meeting, a total of 17 Provincial Assembly members deliberated on the issue of capital and name of the province, according to ruling NCP Whip Rameshwar Phuyal.

On last Sunday, a secretariat meeting of the ruling NCP had instructed the Chief Minister of Province 3 Dormani Poudel, to name the province as Bagmati and fix Hetauda as the permanent provincial capital. Although there are some disputes within the ruling NCP that commands overwhelming majority to take the decision, Phuyal said the name and capital of Province 3 will be fixed unanimously.

Addressing the meeting of the parliamentary party, Chief Minister of Province 3 Dormani Poudel said that the instruction of NCP Secretariat should be implemented. “It has been difficult to work as the government has failed to fix the name and permanent capital of the province for the last two years,” he said, adding that the name and capital of the province will be fixed unanimously by Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the main opposition NC said instructing the parliamentary party to fix the name and capital of the province by the party's secretariat meeting in Kathmandu is against the spirit of the constitution.

“The NC government had fixed Hetauda as the temporary capital of the province. The provincial assembly members are elected by the people. So the NCP secretariat should not dictate them to fix one particular city as the capital and name the province as per their decision,” said Radha Ghale, NC's chief whip in the provincial assembly. 

The provincial assembly members of NCP have agreed to name the province as Bagmati, while the majority of NC provincial assembly members want the province to be named as Newa: Tamsaling.

The first provincial assembly meeting of Province 3 held on February 1, 2018 had formed Capital Feasibility Study Committee to study the feasibility of capital. The committee had submitted its report to the provincial speaker on July 10, 2018.

The committee had recommended Kavre, Chitwan, Nuwakot, Bhaktapur and Makwanpur for the capital of Province 3. Likewise, the committee had also suggested Bagmati, Newa: Tamsaling, Nepal Mandal and Pashupati, among others, as the possible names of the province.

 
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