Embankment work stalled over land issue

June 23, 2001
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MAHOTTARI, June 23 – The three km long embankment work along the Ratu River has been stalled for over a month after some locals, including a National Assembly member, from the Bakadi VDC refused to provide their land for the same.

Officials at the irrigation office said that locals were not ready to sacrifice their land for the cause of embankment but want the embankment for flood control on the river that has turned several acres of fertile land into a desert.

The embankment construction has further delayed when National Assembly member Sitanandan Raye and other people filed a writ petition challenging the work in the Janakpur Appellate Court.

The court has issued a stay order against the defendants in response to the plaintiffs’ demand.

District Development Committee member from area no. 9, Kaushalendra Sharma, who is also the chairman of embankment users’ group, said that the writ petition resulted in further delay the work. Locals fear that more than 2,000 people from nine villages will be submerged during this rainy season.

An all party meeting called recently by Chief District Officer, Laxmi Prasad Bhattarai, also could not resolve the dispute over the embankment.

“This is purely an ego problem rather than the issue of land dispute,” Sharma said. Divisional engineer at the irrigation office, Siddhi Pratap Rana said there was a disruption when 75 percent of the work had been finished at the cost of Rs 1.2 million.

Rana said, “Nine southern villages will be inundated unless the remaining embankment is completed before starting of the monsoon.”

The Bardibas-Jaleshwor Road Project stated that the early floods on the Ratu River that came last week cut one km long section of the Bardibas road under construction.

The concerned authorities have requested the plaintiffs to withdraw their writ petition and let the work continue.