The provincial government has stated that all activities of the provincial assembly will begin from the vegetable market building in Katahari within a few days.
The administrative and parliamentary activities of the Koshi Provincial Assembly will now be conducted from the Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market building in Katahari, Morang. Katahari Rural Municipality formally wrote to the Koshi Provincial Government on Monday, agreeing to use the building for the activities of the Provincial Assembly.
Parliamentary activities were completely halted after both the provincial assembly buildings were vandalized, looted and set on fire during the Gen-G protest on Bhadra 24. Since then, the provincial assembly has not been able to hold meetings due to lack of space, and administrative work has been carried out from a cramped room in the media center in Biratnagar.
The provincial government has stated that all activities of the provincial assembly will begin from the vegetable market building in Katahari within a few days. Earlier, preparations were made to hold the provincial assembly at the Birendra Hall in Biratnagar, but the rent for the hall owned by the metropolis was expensive, so the provincial assembly and the provincial government had chosen the vegetable market building in Katahari as an alternative.
‘Katahari Rural Municipality is going to provide the building to the provincial assembly free of charge,’ said Koshi’s Minister for Internal Affairs and Law Rewatiraman Bhandari. ‘The rural municipality has already sent a letter of consent. Now the next cabinet meeting will make a formal decision, after which the provincial assembly will be held from Katahari,’ he added.
According to Niraj Dhakal, the information officer of the Provincial Assembly Secretariat, the secretariat's work is likely to start from Katahari from Wednesday. 'We have received information that the Council of Ministers will take a decision on Wednesday,' he said, 'as soon as the decision is made, the secretariat will be shifted there.'
The provincial assembly's summer session was in progress before the Gen-G movement. However, the session was ended after the secretariat and meeting hall were destroyed in arson during the movement.
The structure of the vegetable market in Katahari rural municipality, which is connected to Biratnagar, was built at a cost of about 150 million rupees through the Ministry of Agriculture of the federal government. This building, which was built to organize the local fruit and vegetable market, has not been used, although the weekly market is being operated. The structure was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Chaitra 3, 2075 BS.
An administrative building, 32 wholesale and 32 retail shop stalls, a warehouse, a bank house and necessary structures for security personnel have been built within the market area, which is spread over an area of about five bighas and two dhurs. Minister Bhandari informed that preparations are now underway to build the Provincial Assembly meeting hall within the same structure. ‘The other structures are almost ready,’ he said, ‘now the meeting hall remains to be built. Construction will begin immediately after the decision of the Council of Ministers.’
There is a plan to prepare the hall within about 15-20 days, after which preparations are being made to start the winter session of the Provincial Assembly from the first week of Mangsir.
