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Kathmandu Sunday June 24, 2001 Ashadh 10, 2058.
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Embankment
work stalled over land issue
Post Report
MAHOTTARI, June 23 - The three km long embankment work
along the Ratu River has been stalled for over a month after some locals, including a
National Assembly member, from the Bakadi VDC refused to provide their land for the same.
Officials at the irrigation office said that locals were
not ready to sacrifice their land for the cause of embankment but want the embankment for
flood control on the river that has turned several acres of fertile land into a desert.
The embankment construction has further delayed when
National Assembly member Sitanandan Raye and other people filed a writ petition
challenging the work in the Janakpur Appellate Court.
The court has issued a stay order against the defendants in
response to the plaintiffs’ demand.
District Development Committee member from area no. 9,
Kaushalendra Sharma, who is also the chairman of embankment users’ group, said that
the writ petition resulted in further delay the work. Locals fear that more than 2,000
people from nine villages will be submerged during this rainy season.
An all party meeting called recently by Chief District
Officer, Laxmi Prasad Bhattarai, also could not resolve the dispute over the embankment.
"This is purely an ego problem rather than the issue
of land dispute," Sharma said. Divisional engineer at the irrigation office, Siddhi
Pratap Rana said there was a disruption when 75 percent of the work had been finished at
the cost of Rs 1.2 million.
Rana said, "Nine southern villages will be inundated
unless the remaining embankment is completed before starting of the monsoon."
The Bardibas-Jaleshwor Road Project stated that the early
floods on the Ratu River that came last week cut one km long section of the Bardibas road
under construction.
The concerned authorities have requested the plaintiffs to
withdraw their writ petition and let the work continue.
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