The delegation of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC), which is on a visit to India so as to foster ties with Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) met with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh of India Yogi Adityanath on Saturday.
At the meeting held at the office of the Chief Minister, various matters related to Nepal-India relations were discussed, shared Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, NC joint general secretary and delegation leader.
The Rastriya Samachar Samiti quoted Dr. Mahat as saying that they raised the issues of mutual benefits as well as political, religious, cultural, historical and people-to-people relations between Nepal and India on the occasion.
Responding to NC delegation, Chief Minister Adityanath said India always put in priority the issues and matters concerning Nepal. “India has placed the relations with Nepal in top priority, Nepal’s nationality should be strong even for the benefits of India,” Dr. Mahat was quoted as saying.
The delegation had also enquired the Chief Minister about the possible replacement of Nepali Temple based in Banaras in course of construction of the Hindu Corridor. Adityanath assured that the temple would not be evacuated.
Chief of External Affairs Department of BJP, Vijay Chauthaiwale and leader Ashwin Johar were also present in the meeting. The three-member Nepali delegation comprising Dr. Mahat along with NC leaders Udaya Shumsher Rana and Ajaya Chaurasiya had reached India three days ago at the invitation of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Earlier, the delegation and Indian Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar discussed making Nepal-India relation more friendly. NC delegation leader Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat had in-formed that the meeting would help re-solve problems that are sometimes seen between Nepal and India.
Meanwhile, one million doses of Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday.
The delivered 1 million doses is part of the 2 million doses of the vaccine for which the government had paid SSI in February. The government had signed a deal to buy 2 million doses of Covishield, the AstraZeneca type vaccine, at $4 per dose.
SSI had supplied 1 million doses of the vaccine on February 21 and promised to deliver the remaining 1 million doses within 10 days. But after the second wave of infections hit India, authorities there restricted exports of the vaccines, affecting the deliveries to Nepal.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population, the newly arrived vaccines will be provided to people above 18 years old and there is no special priority group for the vaccine.
Nepal has so far used AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India, Japan and Europe; Vero Cell vaccine developed by Sinopharm of China; and single shot Janssen vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson in the United States of America.