Baitadi candidates adopt various measures to woo votes

By Our Correspondent

Baitadi, Oct. 20: In Baitadi, the candidates of the election to the House of Representatives (HoR) and the Provincial Assembly have lured the voters by promising to rehabilitate the freed Haliyas by collecting the data of those who were left to be rehabilitated.  

The Haliyas who have not received identity cards are forced to vote the parties of their masters’ choice.

Pratap Ram Lohar, a freed Haliya from Riga of Surnaya Rural Municipality-6, said that after the declaration of Haliya emancipation, 40 families who did not get any benefits from the government had to cast their votes as suggested by their masters. 

He added, “Our livelihood completely depends on our masters. We cannot cast the votes as we wish.” 

Some literate Haliyas use their voting rights but majority cast their votes only as instructed by their masters.

Haliya in Ward 2 and 4 of the municipality also have the same condition, informed Lohar. Out of 50 houses in Katnoli village of Ward 4, 30 Haliya families are compelled to vote the candidates of their masters’ choice. Since the country does not look after them, they are compelled to vote as told by their masters in order to feed the family and look after the children. 

Meanwhile, in Dashrathchand Municipaliety-4, the candidates and the party cadres had distributed Rs. 2,000 to 5,000 for goat rearing and poultry farming to Haliyas asking for votes, informed a local Raju Ram Bhul.

He said that the candidates had mobilised cadres for votes in Dehimandu, Durgabhawani, Badilek, Udaydev, Bhot and other Haliya areas of Dashrathchand Municipality. He informed that Haliyas had cast votes to Panchas during Panchayat period and after democracy they cast votes to Congress, UML and Maoist.

He informed that earlier some of the Haliyas had cast votes to the party recommended by their masters in the name of closing their debts at the grocery stores. 

Out of 16,953 Haliyas in nine districts including Baitadi in Sudurpashchim Province and Humla, Jajarkot and Surkhet in Karnali Province, 13,546 have been rehabilitated by the government. Still 3,407 Haliya families are waiting for their rehabilitation.

Raju Ram Bhul, who signed the agreement representing Haliya when Nepal government declared liberation of Haliya on September 6, 2008, said that those 3000 families who were rehabilitated had not received any benefit from the government.