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Kathmandu Monday October 29, 2001 Kartik 13, 2058.
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Bank relocation leads to capital flight
Post Report
DADELDHURA, Oct 28 – Local traders and farmers of
Jogbudha valley have been deprived of banking services since the only bank has been
relocated to Kirtipur Bazaar fearing the potential Maoist attacks.
The relocation of sub-branch office of Nepal Bank Limited
from Laldhunga of Jogbudha village to Kirtipur Bazaar has also led the capital flight of
thousands of rupees to the nearby cross border Indian banks and finance companies.
Since the banking service at Jogbudha, which was also
serving the depositors of Alital and Sirsa villages, has now been relocated to Kirtipur,
the villagers have to travel almost 90 kilometers on foot to receive banking services at
the district headquarters.
Witnesses say that the relocation has escalated various
problems. Among them, the economic recession in the area is most severe. Land transaction
at Laldhunga has almost come down to nil. Whereas, borrowing loan from bank for keeping
goat and buffalo has been noted extremely low in the area. Similarly, registration of
local cottage industries has also found decreasing as compared to the statistics of last
year.
"Business of vegetable-growing and cottage industries
have been also recorded low in the area from where the bank was shifted," says
Navaraj Joshi, an agronomist working in a Non Government Organisation.
According to Lal Chand, a local trader, it takes nearly Rs
240 on coming from Jogbudha to the district headquarters by bus and there are also some
extra expenses for lodging and fooding. Whereas, it is less expensive to depositing in the
nearby banks of Indian Border towns like Tanakpur, Banwasa and Khati.
"Though the act of depositing money in the foreign
banks is illegal, it seems that it has become a necessary evil for the villagers to repeat
such acts," said Hari Prasad Bhatta, an advocate of Dadeldhura district.
"Keeping in mind the problems being faced by the villagers, it is most urgent to
relocate the bank in its previous site," adds he. |
