Nepal's President arrives on maiden visit to India

Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari arrived on her maiden five-day visit to India on Monday at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

President Bhandari is leading a 34 member delegation comprising of Foreign Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat and Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Sita Devi Yadav.

During her visit, she will meet President Mukherjee, Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

She is also scheduled to visit temples in Gujarat and Odisha.

This is the first ever visit to India by President Bhandari since assuming office in 2015.

The visit reflects the priority that both nations attach to further strengthening of their age-old, unique, wide-ranging partnership, underpinned by shared historical and cultural linkages and strong people-to-people connections.

She was scheduled to visit India last year but the then government led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli cancelled the visit citing the laggings in preparations.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Government declared public holidays on the day of President Bhandari's departure and also on her return from New Delhi.