The Nepal government has approved minting newly designed coins, removing the country's controversial map that included Limpiyadhura, Lipulek and Kalapani from the one-rupee coin.

Nepal claims that Lipulekh and Kalapani are its territories, whereas India maintains that the territories belong to it.

Nepal's then KP Oli-led government in May 2020 included contentious territories, including Kalapani and Lipulekh, in its official map.

Sources said the Council of Ministers on Thursday approved the minting of newly designed one-rupee and two-rupee coins by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).

As per the cabinet's decision, Nepal's new political map will be removed from the one-rupee coin, they said.

The redesigned one-rupee coin will replace the controversial map of Nepal, which included Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani, with the image of the Lo Ghyakar Monastery, located in Marang village of Mustang, they said.

The monastery is considered one of the oldest monasteries in Nepal.

However, the two-rupee coin will retain the map printed earlier, according to cabinet sources.

Commenting on the development, the Nepali Communist Party's senior leader Bhim Rawal on Sunday criticised the government's decision to remove the new political map from the one-rupee coin, calling it a serious move against Nepal's territorial integrity.

Rawal demanded that both the government and the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party immediately clarify the matter.

"If the government led by Prime Minister Balen Shah has indeed decided to remove the map of Nepal, including Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani, from the one-rupee coin and replace it with the image of the Lo Ghyakar Monastery, it will constitute another serious anti-national decision and a blow to Nepal's territorial integrity," Rawal said.

The Nepal Rastra Bank had proposed the new designs to replace the old ones to reduce the size and weight of coins, the bank's spokesperson Guru Prasad Paudel told PTI.

The new political map of Nepal cannot be accommodated in the rupee-one coin, which is smaller in size, he added.  The other side of the two-rupee coin will have Janaki Temple in it, he said.

The size of the new coins will be 3.2 grams from the earlier 4 grams for the rupee one and 3.8 grams from 5 grams for the rupee two. Similarly, it will be made of steel instead of mixed metal, and the colour will be steel white instead of yellow, he said.