Tansen Municipality Attractive sites for tourism

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Tansen, Dec. 27: After Tansen Municipality announced to allocate Rs 3.5 M for the development of the Pravas Area located 6 km away from the district headquarters, the local people pinned hope the site would be developed as tourist destination in the country.

Due to the lack of proper publicity and research, many historical and tourist sites here have not come into light, said local people. The Pravas Area has remained important from the historical and religious perspective and also as the potential tourist site of the district.

There are many myths and beliefs regarding the name of the area. One is that Mukund Sen, a king under Sen dynasty, constructed a pond about five hundred years ago by bringing water from Pravas, a famous pilgrimage site of India and then poured it on the pond, according to historians. Now a famous Surya kunda (pond) is located here. People have faith that the dead souls would be happy if they offered pindas in the pond.

A total of 50,000 rupees has been already allocated to the development of the place, said Ashok Sahi, mayor of Tansen municipality. "After the allocated budget is spent, the place will get face-lift," Sahi added.

Recently, an old statue and valuable objects have been discovered after carrying out excavation there. Historian said that Archeological Department should carry out excavation there since it contains old palaces and valuable objects.

Besides, there are attractive sites and scenes for the tourists. It is also equipped with communication and transportation facilities. The District Development Committee, Palpa has launched boating in the pond in a bid to promote tourism. However, the level of water in the pond is on the decline. The DDC has initiated to take measures to check dwindling water level in the pond. The Municipality and local people have joined hands to develop the place as an importance tourist site of the district.

Lack of bridge over Rapti affects 9 VDCs

Nepalgunj, Dec. 27 (RSS): The people of Baghouda area that covers nine VDCs across the Rapti river in Banke district have been facing transportation inconvenience because of the lack of a bridge over the river and link roads in the area.

The daily life of the people of Laxmanpur, Kalaphata, Narainapur, Katakuiya, Phatepur, Binauna, Gangapur, Matehiya and Baijapur VDCs are linked with the people of India living along the border area.

Due to a short and easy access to the border area, almost all the people of the area tend to purchase essential commodities at nearby India market and prefer to use Indian currency.

"As we are unable to reach the district headquarters, some 35 km away from Boughada area because of the lack of roads and a bridge over Rapti river, we have no way out except using Indian currency to meet our daily needs, Bhadai Chamar, a resident of Katakuiya VDC-8 said.

The Boughada area is also lagging behind in education, according to the statistics, out of the total 18 per cent literate people, women account for eight per cent.

The electricity poles installed along the roads in Nepalgunj four year ago are about to collapse. Nepal Bank Ltd., only bank in the area, has been removed due to security reasons.

It is Bhojbhagawanpur police post that keeps vigilance in all the nine VDCs in the area.

His Majesty's Government has made a budgetary allocation for constructing a bridge over Rapti river and Baghouda-Nepalgunj road under the Ninth Plan.

Meanwhile construction work of the Fattehpur Irrigation Project undertaken with the cooperation of European Union has reached its final stages, Banke DDC chairman Omjung Rana said.

Civil society should contribute to quality education: Saud

Janakpurdham, Dec. 27 (RSS): Minister of State for Education and Sports Narayan Prasad Saud inaugurated a seminar on "Involvement of civil society in basic formal education programme and pre-primary school" organised by pre-primary school child home project.

In his inaugural address, Saud said in view of emergence of innovative ideas and concepts in the education sector, the civil society should be attentive towards upgrading the quality of education.

The guardians should be ready to face any challenges in education sector as an act has been enforced effectively to run and supervise the schools through the board of the directors in the respective schools, he added.

Referring to a big gap in the quality of education between public and private schools, Saud said it is the need of the hour to enhance the quality of education in public schools in order to narrow the gap.

Nepali Congress Dhanusa district president Ram Krishna Yadav said that the enrollment of the children of the rural areas have been increasing following the restoration of democracy in the country.

Mayor of Janakpurdham Municipality Bajarang Prasad Saha noted that education sector is confronting an array of problems as a result of the frequent changes in the education policy.

Coordinator of pre-primary school child home project Nirbikar Shrestha presided over the seminar.

The seminar was participated in by 34 teachers of Dhanusa district.

Village scheme brings shy women forward

Charikot (Dolakha), Dec. 27 (RSS): The women of 20 village development committees of Dolakha district have been taking active part in development works after the implementation of the Village Development Programme (VDP).

The VDP is being launched in the 51 VDCs and one municipality under the local self-governance programme with the cooperation of His Majesty's Government, the Ministry of Local Development, National Planning Commission and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Altogether 104 men groups, 105 women groups and 204 mixed groups have been constituted with the objective of mobilising savings and skills for the development of the VDCs.

Likewise, 1,060 people have undergone training and the women of some of the VDCs have started work for generating income.

According to team leader Ram Kumar Khadka, training programmes on weaving Dhaka cloth, goat, poultry and vegetable farming, making essence sticks and smokeless stoves have been organised for the women with the objective of generating income.

The local self-governance programme is being implemented with the concept of mobilising people's participation in development works, according the DDC chairman Lal Kumar K.C.

The various groups have been involved in building and repairing roads, temples and canals by mobilising the people.

Meanwhile, the women groups have been playing an active role in controlling the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the villages, according the district development advisor Mahesh Nepal.

The backward Thami community have also been taking active part in development works of the village, according to chairman of Chandrabati VDC Khadga Sedai.

Social motivator of Morang VDC Sulochana Joshi says that the local Tamang women who used to even hesitate talking with others have started taking part in development works.

Tara Tamang and Goma Tamang of the group constituted in Magapauwa VDC have started earning income by weaving Dhaka cloth.

The local self-governance programme has enlightened the villagers and helped to increase people's participation in development works of the villages, according to DDC member Ganesh Shrestha.