Rural Municipality Chairperson vandalizes DAO Gulmi in a claim of hassle faced by service-receivers

By Tilachan Pandey, Tamghas, Dec.20: The chairperson of the rural municipality has vandalized the District Administration Office(DAO), Gulmi, saying that service receivers are facing hassle because of lack of apt service delivery by the office.

The rural municipality said that DAO Gulmi was vandalized because the service delivery lingered for three days and caused distress to service receivers who had to come from remote areas. 

According to the Assistant Chief District Officer, Gulmi, Hari Prasad Gire, Chairperson of the Kaligandaki Rural Municipality Bed Bahadur Thapa broke the scanner machine of the department of passport in the claim of impeding serve delivery. 

He said that the service delivery of the passport section is currently being halted owing to the broken scanner. The service will resume only after receiving the scanner from the department. 

The chairperson Thapa said that the service needs to be prioritized towards people of remote areas mentioning that it takes a whole day, around 2 PM, to reach the administration office from Kaligandaki Rural Municipality. 

Thapa said that it is a grim situation that people have to stay three days just to make passports even though the office claims that a token of two days was sent already. 

Service receivers who took tokens on Friday for passports returned home because of the hassle. 

Romkant Pandey of Harmichaur, Kaligandaki Rural Municipality -1, who had taken a token for Friday has returned home owing to halted service on Friday and an official holiday on Saturday.

Jagdish Bhattarai, district secretary of Nepali Congress and a resident of Harmichaur, Kaligandaki Rural Municipality -1, complained that the take of the district administration office for remote areas is different. 

While the district administration office, Gulmi claims that it provides service to all people equally irrespective of their standing and residence. 

The office said that it is facilitating people through email services at times when there are incomplete documents and needs recommendation from rural municipalities. 

Chief District Officer of Gulmi District, Janardan Gautam, said that the chairperson who broke the scanner was taken into custody and released after the chairperson gave a written apology along with compensation in the presence of the political parties.