KATHMANDU: The Maoist affiliated Kirat National Liberation Front Monday said it would not allow the construction of Koshi High Dam.

Organising a press conference here, Padam Bahadur Rai, president, KNYF, said, “The 269 metre high dam would make over 155 Village Development Committees prone to monsoon floods, which would put the lives of thousands of people at risk,” He claimed that the construction of the dam would also damage the fertility of the arable land in the area.

“We won’t let the land of Kirat turn into a graveyard,” he said. Rai said the agreement signed without seeking consent from the locals would never be acceptable to them. “We will retaliate if the government used security forces to suppress our agitation,” Rai warned.

Rai demanded that Minister for Irrigation Bal Krishna Khand resign from his

post for making an erroneous decision.