Enraged villagers picket police office over woman’s death

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BIRGUNJ, Aug 20 - Enraged villagers gheraoed the police office for 30 hours along with the body of an old woman who had died after police beat her up with their boots.

They were demanding action against the guilty police and compensation for killing the old woman. After 30 hours of their agitation the Maoist workers intervened and resolved the problem by imposing a fine of Rs 30,000 on the police for compensation plus Rs 10,000 which the VDC also agreed to provide as compensation.

According to the report, a team of about 15 police went to ward no. 4 of Mahadevpatti VDC to eradicate marijuana on Saturday. As they arrived in the village they started destroying marijuana plants and cauliflower which were planted side by side in the field of Rabad Mahato Koiri.

Koiri resisted them but he was held tightly by the police. Then his wife Lalmati requested police not to destroy the cauliflower, but the police continued to destroy the cauliflower. Lalmati was angry and started scolding them.

At this, police beat her with their boots. As she was hit with boots for a couple of times, she fell down and she was rushed to the health post, but she died on the way.

Chairman of Mahadevpatti VDC-3 Jung Bahadur Mukhiya Bin told The Kathmandu Post on Monday that police agreed to pay a compensation of Rs 30,000 and the VDC agreed to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation when about 300 Maoist workers gave the decision. The body was cremated after the tripartite agreement was reached among the police, Maoists and villagers on Sunday night at 8 p.m.

DSP Yogendra Bahadur Katuwal, however, claimed that the woman had died of heart attack, that they were not compelled to pay the compensation and that they had not agreed to pay. He said the VDC had agreed to pay the compensation.

A neighbour of the victim, Babu Lal Pundit said that he had seen the police beating the woman with their boots and that the villagers had withdrawn the gherao of police office only after the police signed the agreement to pay the compensation.

Local people are angry with the police after this incident.

One dead, four injured in Ramechhap landslide

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MANTHALI, Aug 20 - A 13-year-old boy was killed on the spot and four others were injured seriously when seven members of the same family were buried under a landslide at Golu in Priti VDC-4.

The landslide that occurred on Monday morning had buried two houses of Arjun Basnet. It plunged down from a distance of nearly one kilometre from above his house. Basnet’s son, Jaya Prakash, died instantly after he was buried by the landslide.

Basu Dev Bhandari of Priti VDC said by telephone that Basnet’s pregnant wife Bed Maya, 43, his daughter Nir Maya, 10, his son Om Bahadur,8, and another son Prem Bahadur, 6, have been injured seriously by the landslide.

The injured people were rescued by the local youths who rushed them to the British Gorkha Welfare Centre for primary treatment.

Although they had requested for the rescue of the wounded people since the morning, a helicopter of the Karnali Airways arrived at 3:15 p.m. and airlifted them to Kathmndu for treatment.

Member of Parliament representing Ramechhap-1, Kamal Prakash Sunuwar and officiating Chief District Officer (CDO) Basu Dev Dahal had come to the site for their rescue.

CDO Dahal said he gave away Rs 10,000 for the deceased, Rs 10,000 as compensation for the house and Rs 2,000 in cash for the treatment of the wounded people at the site of the mishap.

As the landslide is still continuing until this afternoon, other houses may also be damaged, Bhandari said. According to Bhandari, 15 houses located near the site of landslide are vulnerable and the families living in these houses need to be evacuated immediately with an alternative arrangement for their shelter.

Acute shortage of iodised salt affect people in Humla

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SIMIKOT (Humla), Aug 20 - The warehouse of iodised salt has been lying empty over the last two months and efforts have not been made to bring in the iodised salt.

The government has been making available iodised salt to the people at subsidised rate.

Residents of the southern belt of the district are particularly affected due to the scarcity of iodised salt. They depend on Tibetan salt. But now there is an acute shortage of salt and people are compelled to eat vegetables and dal without salt.

According to District Development Committee member Kul Bahadur Hamal, there is an extreme shortage of salt in Maila, Kalika, Madana, Shreenagar and Gair VDCs. There is not a single chunk of salt in the southern belt. Although people walk up to the district headquarters for three days to buy salt they are compelled to return home without a single kilogram of salt.

He said that they were habituated to barter salt for foodgrain when salt was brought by shepherds on the back of their sheep in the past, but this year, many sheep died due to PPR disease and they did not bring salt to barter with foodgrain. The government has also not made any effort to supply salt to the district.

An employee of Salt Trading Corporation said the shortage of salt was caused because Cosmic Air which had won the contract to transport salt to Humla did not transport salt on time.

This year it is not known whether the quota has been fixed or not.

The godown of the Salt Corporation is completely empty, but people are continuing to throng in front of the godown daily.

Gastro-enteritis claims lives of 12 in Mugu

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SURKHET, Aug 20 - Twelve people have died of gastro-enteritis over the past few days in Mugu, one of the remote districts of Karnali zone.

Those who were affected by gastro-enteritis were from Gamgadhi Bazaar, Shreenagar, Karkiwada, Rowa, Ruga, Jiya and Natharp VDCs, according to Auxiliary Health Worker (AHW) Parshuram Nepali of Mugu District Health Office.

There is no doctor in the district for the last two years. There is a shortage of health manpower and medicines in the district to fight against the disease which has spread in different VDCs, according to AHW Nepali.

As there is no health manpower available to send in the affected VDCs, efforts are under way to utilise the village health workers to contain the spread of the disease, according to Mugu District Health Office.

Nayab Subba (an employee) Jaya Bahadur Hitan of District Administration office informed by telephone that 12 people including four people from Ruga VDC, three persons from the same family in Jima VDC, three persons from Karkiwada VDC and two persons from Rowa VDC had died by Sunday. They were aged between two to 26 years. The disease has been spreading towards Sorukot VDC. AHW Nepali said death toll of the gastro-enteritis victims could he higher because the area where the disease has spread is located about 44 kilometres from Gamgadahi and the report is yet to be received.