Dipayal: Strikes were called in Dhankuta and Doti today demanding that the places be recognised as provincial headquarters, after it was known that the erstwhile regional headquarters had failed to make it to the list of places recommended for provincial headquarters.

A study team of the Ministry of Urban Development had yesterday submitted a report recommending Dhangadi of Kailali and Biratnagar of Morang as provincial headquarters for provinces 7 and 1 respectively.

In Doti, the agitators imposed a chakkajam and closed down government offices. A motorbike was torched in the district headquarters Silgadi for defying the strike. The district had been witnessing peaceful agitation under the initiative of Doti Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the past one week.  “As there were attempts to ignore us, people have spontaneously come out to the street to protest,” said Dipak Khadka, chairperson of Hotel Entrepreneurs’ Association Doti.

In Dhankuta too, a general strike has been imposed in the district since today.

While vehicles didn’t ply the Dharan-Dhankuta Highway, life as far as Terhathum, Sankhuwasabha and Bhojpur has been affected. Though schools, marketplaces and emergency vehicles operated as usual, the halt on vehicular operation got hundreds of people stranded on the way.

The agitators have demanded that Dhankuta be made the provincial capital in view of the infrastructure it has. The locals had been organising various pressure programmes seeking provincial capital status for their place for quite some time.