Rename road in Patna after our ex-PM Koirala, team from Nepal urges Bihar govt

PATNA: The BP Koirala Museum Committee, based in Kathmandu, has written to the Bihar government requesting it to develop areas around BP Koirala’s statue located on the Gol Ghar premises in Patna and put there a new plaque carrying details of his connections with the city and the country.

At present, the statue carries caries only the name of the Nepalese leader, who was the first democratically elected prime minister of his country.

The committee has also urged the Bihar government to rename the Bank Road in the city after BP Koirala, where he had spent years while he was in political exile. Koirala had taken active part in the Quit India movement in 1942 . Later, while organising freedom movement in Nepal, he had made Patna the headquarter of the Nepali Congress he had founded. He resided at a building at Bank Road in the city. “He had founded Nepalese Congress in Calcutta (now Kolkata) but later shifted it headquarters to Patna. All these things now need to be put together and documented. This is why a film has been planned,” Parshuram Pokharel, BP Koirala Museum Committee chairman who is in state capital these days, said.

A major part of the shooting will be held in Patna, he said.

Prof NK Chaudhary, former Patna College principal, said “It’s because of this close association that many leaders had supported him during the freedom movement led by him in Nepal,” he said. Pokharel said, “Shooting of the film will start in the state capital in a couple of weeks. Last month, the production team was here to review the sites. We had visited the statue of BP Koirala at Gol Ghar campus in the city but were shocked. The area around it was covered with filth and garbage.” Education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said committee’s requests would be considered and the site of statue would be developed.

Anand Kishore, urban development department secretary, said the area around the statue would be cleaned and regular maintenance of the site too would be ensured.