Collective efforts of all essential for development and prosperity: Aazad

Bhokraha Narsingh Rural Municipality located at the southern border of Sunsari was formed by merging former Bhokraha and Narsingh village development committees. It has a population of 59,280 with 80 per cent dependent on agriculture. Ajmal Akhtar Aazad from the Nepali Congress was elected as the chairman of the rural municipality in 2022 local level election. Our correspondent Jaya Krishna Yadav interviewed the chairman. Excerpts: 

How many of your election and manifesto commitments have you fulfilled? 

I have fulfilled more than half of the promises. First and foremost, I committed to improving the economic status of the villagers, ensuring good governance, creating employment opportunities in agriculture, improving education, providing access to health services, enhancing the overall situation, focusing on infrastructure development, arranging irrigation facilities for farmers and working in a citizen-friendly environment. I have been working accordingly.

What method have you adopted to fulfil those promises?

During the election, I approached the people with a manifesto to make education, health and agriculture accessible to everyone and mechanise and commercialise the latter within five years. 

After being elected, I worked on implementing it by constructing physical infrastructure in three schools, adding buildings and arranging 32 additional teachers across the rural municipality to improve teaching. 

Schools have been equipped with whiteboards, smart boards and computer labs. One community school has been provided with English medium instruction and free education.  

We brought Narsingh Health Post into operation which had been out of operation for years. To ensure health access to everyone, we have conducted health post services with free medicine. We have regular health posts, health centres, and two maternity homes operating in all eight wards. The rural municipality has provided free health insurance to 1,500 people to ensure no one is deprived of health services. Every year, the rural municipality renews the health insurance for the poor, Dalit and marginalised communities.

Electrification in agriculture and street lighting have been done. For farmers, we have built two agricultural buildings, provided free soil testing, distributed pesticide sprayers and provided more than 700 farmers with free boring pipes for underground irrigation. We have distributed motors to five farmers, primarily for vegetable, rice and corn cultivation. Additionally, we have distributed chaff cutters to livestock farmers.

What steps have you taken to strengthen irrigation system necessary for agriculture? 

Although the Sukhsema canal flows through our area, irrigation has not reached all the villages. The accessibility of irrigation is still weak. Therefore, along with the distribution of pipes for boring and motors at a subsidised rate, I am in discussions and negotiations with the Nepal Electricity Authority to provide electrical irrigation for Bhokraha Narsingh through the Inaruwa Dhalkeber substation located in Ward No. 4 of the rural municipality. I proposed this to Kul Man Ghising a few months ago. Since we have eight wards, electrical irrigation would be the most suitable for providing year-round irrigation to all. I have initiated projects with an estimated cost of around Rs. 160 million. We requested the authority for a 100 per cent investment or at least 80 per cent, but the authority has promised to arrange electric poles and wires for irrigation with a 50-50 investment. I expect to bring irrigation facilities to the fields of all farmers within my tenure.

What kind of work have you done in terms of physical infrastructure such as roads, electricity and drinking water?

I have focused on quality development to ensure sustainability of development works. The construction of the administrative building, which started in the previous term, has been completed, and we have moved our office to our own building, saving significant rent expenses. In two years, nearly 22 kilometres of blacktop road construction has been completed. To reduce theft and accidents, we have arranged street lights on the main and subsidiary roads and provided vapour lights with solar panels at the Nepal-India border crossings. For drinking water, all households have their own tube wells.

Have you done anything for youth employment and women's empowerment?

We are encouraging returnees from abroad to work according to their skills and labour, providing skill-based training to make them entrepreneurs and creating youth employment opportunities. We are also conducting training for capacity building and skill development for youth and women's empowerment.

What is the state of good governance?

During my tenure, we have achieved 71 points in the Local Government Institutional Capacity Self-Assessment (LISA) evaluation from 41 points. We have timely implemented the budget for the fiscal year 2022/23 and timely prepared the annual budget, policies and programmes for the fiscal years 2023/24. Additionally, we conducted rural municipal assemblies on time. 

What is the relationship between three tiers of government?

Due to the political instability in the country, the environment of cooperation among the three tiers of government is not as harmonious as it should be. We have faced a bitter reality where development has been affected due to budget cuts and returns from higher levels despite our contract work.

What do you expect from the residents of the rural municipality?

Since development is not something that can happen all at once or with efforts of a single party, everyone’s support and cooperation is essential. I expect the same support, cooperation, and suggestions from the villagers as they have given in the past two years. I urge everyone to communicate directly with me if there are any issues or problems. I also expect collective efforts for the overall development and prosperity of the rural municipality.