Dhankuta faces water shortage

Post Report

DHANKUTA, Jan 6 - Dhankuta Drinking Water Users Committee has warned that people in the local municipality may have to face an acute shortage of drinking water in the near future.

The shortage of drinking water is being experienced with the commencement of the winter season. The drinking water users committee has said it will not be able to fulfil needs of drinking water of the people.

Residents of Dhankuta Municipality ward Nos 3,4,5,6 and 7 receive drinking water supply from the water source at Hile. Dhankuta Drinking Water Users Committee has so far distributed 1,124 taps, including 52 public ones. People of the municipality need 14 litres of water per second to meet their needs but they receives only 7 litres of water per second, according to the committee.

Water sources have started drying up as the winter approaches and there are no alternative sources of water. That is the reason for the presence of the problem again this year, according to Mayor of Dhankuta, Wangdi Lama.

Mayor Lama told The Kathmandu Post that he was determined to solve the drinking water problem in the municipality during his tenure.

The water source with a potential to meet the demand of the municipality lies in Bhirgaon VDC, which is far from the municipality, but people of that VDC are not willing to share with the water sources in their VDC on the ground that their field will be parched due to shortage of water and they may also need the water source in future.

Concerned people say that there will be an acute shortage of drinking water in the months of Chaitra (March-April) and Baisakh (April-May) as in the previous year.

Youth deprived of citizenship certificate

Post Report

DHANKUTA, Jan 6 - Netra Kumar Rai, a resident of Bhedetar VDC-1 in Dhankuta district, has not been able to receive citizenship certificate though he has attained the age of 22 years because his father married another woman and his mother eloped with another man.

When Netra Kumar was a small boy, his father went to "Muglan" marrying another woman and leaving behind his wife and child to fend for themselves. He has not returned home since the time. His mother also left her son and married another man. Netra Kumar said he came to know about the death of his second mother but he is ignorant about the whereabouts of his father.

According to the laws of Nepal, the son of a Nepali citizen is entitled to receive citizenship certificate after the completion of 18 years of age. However, Netra Kumar has already made tireless efforts, but he has been denied citizenship certificate so far. He has no brothers and other close relatives in the area to identify and endorse for his certificate and therefore he has failed to receive the citizenship certificate so far.

Netra Kumar’s mother had come to the District Administration Office on Friday to help her son receive the citizenship certificate. " I love the son whom I have given birth and I have come to see whether I can be able to obtain citizenship certificate for my son." she said. She also added that she had decided to marry a man of her village after her husband left the country with another woman and alos because she was erstwhile young.

The problem of broken family is very common with the people of Mongolian community. It is very common for many women to take another husband and abandon their small children when they dislike the husband or when their husband leaves the country by marrying another woman and does not return home.

In recent years, people from Brahmin and Chhetri communities also go to foreign countries in search of job. When they return home, many of them find that their wives have left them and remarried. Angry that their wives have left them they also marry again leaving their children helpless and unattended.

Phujel calm on surface, smouldering inside

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, Jan 6- An eerie silence welcomed me at Phujel VDC of Gorkha district on December 30. The foot-trails were so narrow that even two persons could not pass through it together. Even after walking for hours through a dense forest, I could not meet any acquaintance. It was calm - the forest, the trails, and even the people I met on my way. The only sound I heard was the hissing of Budhi Gandaki.

Had I not been aware of what brought such calmness, I would have enjoyed and loved the peace that prevailed in my village.

This was my village where I spent first 15 years of my life. I pictured in my mind how the village would look now if the Maoists would not have intensified their People’s War in Phujel VDC. The surface tranquillity did not relieve me; it rather frightened me.

Invariably I ended up comparing the current situation of the village with the situation five years back. I saw distinct change in the social structure of the village in the span of five years, due mainly to the People’s War waged by the Maoists.

I came across many new changes in the village, which were the results of the insurgency. Though the village was calm it was boiling underneath. I observed that the people no longer wanted to work in the field. There were no porters and very few people returned there from Kathmandu and other places. The villagers seemed to be caught between devil and the deep blue sea. So, the village being physically calm did not mean that there was peace anymore.

I did not know much about the social life of the village before the restoration of democracy in 1990. But, the days after the democracy are still fresh in my mind. The everyday-speeches by the political leaders, their false assurances, the infighting were the trademarks of the village in which I grew. And, these were the special features of my society after democracy saw the light of the day. The people were optimistic towards their future.

In the first seven years of democracy there were some fightings among the local cadres of political parties. Sometimes the Nepali Congress supporters used to create hullabaloo and sometimes Samyukta Janamorcha would create scenes. After the Maoists took the village in their grip, about three years ago, other forces left the field for the Maoists. Till now, four persons from this village - three by police and one by the Maoists - have been killed in the insurgency. And, almost a dozen youth are still underground.

When I reached at the centre of the village, I could not see the gatherings of the people as before. People hardly came out from the confines of their homes. I started thinking - don’t the people feel the need to socialise? Or, has something prevented them to meet and gossip?.. It could be taken as a significant change in the social structure. The most amazing thing was that even the dogs
had stopped barking at the people passing through the trails.

My home is located at a corner, isolated from the whole village. When I reached my home, I saw the same calmness there. Everybody was inside the four walls. My younger brother started to narrate the fresh stories of the village. And, all of them were about the Maoists’ activities.

"Last week, the Maoists organised a mass gathering ... I heard that the Maoists are soon to take revenge of the killing of Deepak ..." he went on telling the stories. He also said that he recently met with some of the Maoists, strolling along the village trails. Similar were the stories told by my
mother.

Next morning I went to meet my neighbours. Everybody I met was worried about the future of the country. They used to say - "Yo desh ma ke hune ho........?" One could hardly find a youth working in the village. All of them had gone away - either in search of job or study - because of the psychological fear of the War. I could see only the elderly people working in the field.

US students find Nepal an ideal country

Post Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 6 - Nepal is one of the most popular places where foreign students can learn about culture and religion, a professor of anthropology from an American University said here today.

Dr. Craig R. Janes, professor of anthropology from Colorado University, Denver, USA said that since Nepal has a very rich heritage and culture American students will find Nepal as an ideal country where they can learn much about culture and religion.

Dr. Janes is in Kathmandu with undergraduate students from Colorado University. According to him this is the fifth time that students from CU are in Nepal under study abroad program. American students who are in Nepal under the study abroad program said that they found Nepal as an ideal place to study Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions of this region.

Nepali undergraduate students study at Malpi International College (host of the American students) for two years and they study the final two years at Colorado University, USA. According to Jana Thapa, Executive Director at Malpi College, the college prepares Nepali students so that they would not feel out of place once they are in the United States. "Malpi has been constantly putting in effort to provide American quality education in Nepal," she said.

Since earlier this month, the American students having lectures on Hinduism, Buddhism, Hindu rituals, History and Geography of Nepal, Tourism etc. According to Malpi College who has been hosting the lectures, Mrs. Angur Baba Joshi, an educationist and Father Loche, Doctorate Degree holder in Newari Buddhism who is in Nepal since last 42 years, are two among the lecturers taking classes to the American students.

No crime in Rani during festivals

Post Report

BIRATNAGAR, Jan 6 - Usha Mandal from Biratnagar Sub-Metropolis-22 is happy to live fearless life for the last six months. She has not yet forgotten the last year’s horrible incident in which one of her neighbours lost his life due to a fierce dispute during the Id festival.

But no such an incident has been occurred during the national festivals of the communities at Rani, the Nepal-India border area, since last year due to the efficiency of the local administration, said Gyan Bahadur Rai, Chairman of Ward No-21. Many people used to either lose their lives or sustain serious injuries during the Muslim’s Id or the Hindu’s Dasain and Tihar.

Chairman of Ward No-20, Diwakar Rai, said "We have realised that we are really the Nepali citizens".

Police Inspector of the Rani Customs Office, Pratap Kumar Gurung, said that four persons were killed out of the 13 crime that took place last year. But no crimes has been recorded for the last six months period during this year, Inspector Gurung said. He said that 11 suspected persons had been arrested for trying to spread riots in the locality.

"The main reason of low crime rate is the better coordination between the locals and police than that of the previous years," Gurung said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Yuvaraj Bhattarai, who is also the in-charge of the border security, was of the view that crime rate in the area dwindled following the arrest of some of the noted Indian criminals.

DSP Bhattarai added that they had also established smooth coordination with the Indian police to quell crimes across the border since last year.