Ramgram people deprived of minimum urban facilities

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Parasi, Nov. 11: Local residents of Ramgram Municipality are deprived of even minimum facilities of being the urban dwellers.

The municipality, which is named after one of the eight historical stupas of Lord Buddha situated in the then Unbach Village Development Committee (VDC), has a total of 25,000 population. Although there are two campuses, two government high schools, one lower secondary school, five primary schools, five residential boarding schools and one children’s home, majority of the people are illiterate.

"Since many of the local residents are uneducated, it has hampered the social and economic development of the municipality," says Shiv Shankar Ram Yadav, Deputy Major of the municipality.

Yadav says that the government has to extend the working area of the Maheshpur customs office and blacktop the Bhairawa-Tribenidham road.

Five years have passed since Ramgram was declared as a municipality. But its annual budget is yet to exceed Rs. 10 million.

"The municipality has right to levy different charges, but it has no sufficient budget to carry out development activities," says Murari Ghimire, Ward chairman of ward No. 3 of the municipality.

Four VDCs—Awaj, Manjari, Jamuwad and Parasi—were merged to develop Ramgram as Municipality where more than 80 per cent people still depend on agriculture.

Most of the streets and roads in the municipality are in bad condition. Many of the houses are made from thatches. Only 12 kilometres road of the municipality is black topped.

Despite the efforts made to provide clean drinking water to the people, managing drainage is another major problem.

Meanwhile, in Bhairawa, people of Nepali origin, who were chased away from Meghalaya of India about 13 years ago, have been leading a very difficult life. These people, who have been living in Matilbar near Lumbini, have been deprived of the citizenship certificates and they are compelled to live on daily wages. These people were chased away from the Indian state after an anti-Nepalese campaign that was launched by the indigenous people.

Out of 81 families, some have been able to take the citizenship certificates with the help of their relatives in the hilly districts of the country.

The refugees were staying near the then Zonal Commissioner’s office at Butwal. And the then Zonal Commissioner Kajiman Kandangwa had shifted him to the site near Lumbini in the year 2044 B. S.

Khem Raj Parajuli, one of the refugees, who makes his living by selling tea, says, "We are also Nepali. Our ancestors had gone to India to make a living. But we were compelled to leave the place due to the pressure of the locals."

He says that he has bought a piece of land but he has failed to register the land in his name, as he has no citizenship certificate.

When asked about the issue, the District Administration Office informed that the problem of those people has been forwarded to the government to address it permanently.