Please Keep Tanahu's Leasehold Forest Project

Almost all the Nepalese citizens are familiar with foreign funded projects in many of the key areas, including education, health and infrastructure development. These projects have poured so much money in Nepal's soil and all of us by now, should have exceeded Asian standards if the fund had been utilised properly. The layman does not understand where the money goes. But one can see the ratty business going on among the responsible figures who are all out to reap maximum benefits from such projects and quite contrarily terminate those projects that seem to be benefiting the economically downtrodden grassroots level people.

And the latest example of such cases is the government's decision (we have heard) to end the leasehold forest project that came to our district just five years ago, and which has been implemented in ten different hilly districts of Nepal. The multi-million dollar project is being successful in its aim at raising the living standard of the poor. But if the rumour that this project is terminated within this fiscal year were true, how would the government's policy to alleviate poverty be successful? The authorities need to give a serious thought over this issue which is directly related to raising the living standard of the poor through self-employment.

Amrit Bhandari
Damauli,
Tanahu