PTI

Kathmandu, Sep 12: Ahead of Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda's visit to India, a key partner in the coalition government has demanded the scrapping of the "unequal" 1954 Kosi Agreement.

"As the Kosi Agreement was unequal and based on one-sided benefit it should be reviewed and replaced within three years by a new treaty which is equal and mutually beneficial," the CPN-UML, the second largest party in the Maoist-led coalition government in Nepal, said while endorsing a resolution on the conclusion of its central committee meeting on Wednesday.

Prachanda would undertake a five-day visit to India from Sunday.

CPN-UML has also demanded that the government should seek compensation from India for the Kosi flood victims, claiming that the calamity was caused by the negligence of the Indian government which is responsible for maintenance and repairing of the barrage.

The breach in the Kosi embankment on August 18 in Nepal has displaced lakhs of people in low lying areas of the country and across the border in Bihar.

The party said that the Indian government should provide compensation to those farmers whose lands were acquired and given on lease to India for 199 years to construct the Kosi barrage.

CPN-UML, which holds the key posts of deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Water Resources, has urged the government to take over the management, control, supervision and monitoring of the Kosi river including that of all the bridges and barrages built in Nepalese territory in the Kosi area.