We will vote to those who will solve our problems: Flood victims

By Shailendra Rokaya

Bajhang, Nov. 7: Many families in Bajhang district suffered huge losses due to the floods caused by heavy rains from October 17 to October 19 last year.  Showing the houses and fields washed away by the floods, Khaptadchhanna Rural Municipality locals said that they will vote for the candidates who would solve their problems.

The locals have been showing the damages and stating their desire to vote all the candidates, who are contesting for the House of Representatives (HoR) and Provincial Assembly, arriving in the village under their door-to-door campaign.

“We spent a year with the problems and false assurances of the government. We don’t want the same people who left us in dismay in the same condition,” said Surendra Khati, a resident from Ward No. 1 of Khaptadchhanna.

“We villagers have come to a decision that we will vote for the candidates who will take an oath to solve our problems,” Surendra added. There are around 77 families in Khaptadchhanna who were displaced by the floods and are struggling to lead their daily lives for one year.

While some families are living in others’ houses, many are taking shelter in the sheds. “While our houses were destroyed, the lands where we cultivated crops and vegetables have turned into riverbanks,” said Rine Khati, a flood victim of the rural municipality. “We knocked the doors of different government and non-government organisations. We only received assurances but no help at all in reality. Some individuals who didn’t hear our problems have arrived to ask for votes but we don’t plan to elect such individuals,” said Rine.

Surendra and Rine are only a handful of the victims who are struggling to lead a good life at the local level.

“The river is in front of my house. Even if there is a small rain, I cannot sleep. I don’t know when my house will be washed away,” said Harka Khati, a resident of Ward No. 1. Around a dozen villages including Kalukheti, Ghatkhola, Pasalbagar, Khatigaun and Aichelibagar, among others, are in serious risk of floods and landslides in Khaptadchhanna alone. The main road of the local level is also in a dilapidated condition.

“We cannot perform activities to save our people from floods and landslides with the resources we have. We have pleaded to the federal and provincial governments many times but to no avail,” said Uttam Bahadur Rokaya, chairman of Khaptadchhanna.

Rokaya said that they are providing Rs. 500,000 to the families whose houses were completely destroyed. The areas damaged by the floods and landslides in Bajhang were visited by the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Chief Minister alongside Speaker and lawmakers. Most of them made assurances for help and returned by helicopters, and nothing came in return.

When the locals took a delegation to the provincial government and submitted a memorandum to the CM and the PM, the district was declared a ‘crisis-hit district’. The district still remains the same.