Cotton farmers complain about lack of official responsiveness

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Nepalgunj, April 18: Cotton Development Committee in Khajura has decided to build a causeway with its own funds as the concerned department did not pay attention to the repeated request to build a bridge damaged in last year’s monsoon. The bridge over Gyang river that links the Cotton farming areas in Dhadhwar, Kalika, Mahammadpur and Deudha Kala VDC of the Bardia district had been swept away by floods last July.

The Cotton Development Committee, Khajura has been demanding assistance to build the broken bridge from the Department of Roads and the District Development Committee, the chairman of the Cotton Development Committee Gopal Krishna Ghimire told The Rising Nepal.

Ghimire also alleged that the Department of Roads has been ignoring the urgency of building the bridge in spite of a directive from the Deputy Prime Minister to do so. He also accused the political parties of trying to rehabilitate the freed Kamaiyas on the seven Bighas of land used for cotton farming.

The project chief of the Cotton Development Committee Santosh Bohra expressed concern over lack of domestic market for the locally produced cotton, adding that Hetauda textile Mills has closed while Jyoti and Butwal Spinning Mills do not buy cotton from them. Bohra said that since the latter two Mills use viscose and synthetic fibres they may not be too keen on cotton. He also said that Jyoti Spinning Mills wanted to buy cotton at unrealistically low rates, so they have called for a tender instead. All those concerned with Cotton farming in Bardiaya have expressed concern that if there is no support and co-operation from the government, cotton farming may come to a close in a few years time.