Kalikot locals facing problems to cross Tila

By Our Correspondent,Kalikot, June 12: Locals of Tilagufa Municipality become anxious once it starts raining. As soon as the monsoon starts, the flow of water in the Tila River increases, halting travel via road, which makes it difficult for the locals of Ward Nos. 9, 10, and 11 of the municipality to commute. 

A concrete bridge over the Tila River was swept away a flood triggered by a heavy rainfall three years ago. A wooden bridge was built for vehicles to cross the river in winter.  However, when the water level rises in monsoon, vehicles cannot cross the river as the flood sweeps away the wooden bridge. 

A flood triggered by the incessant rains from October 6 to 10, 2022, washed away the concrete bridge, and after that, the government has taken no initiative to rebuild it. During winter, as the water level recedes, vehicles can cross the bridge through a wooden bridge. 

After the swollen river again carried away the wooden bridge, cars, motorcycles and tractors which cannot cross the river, remain on the other side of the river, said Narendra Bahadur Rokaya, the ward chairman of the Tilagufa Municipality, Ward No. 9. Locals from three wards of Tilagufa Municipality, as well as those from the entire Mahawai Rural Municipality, will be deprived of transportation service for six months. 

Until September, till the water level in the rivers recedes, road transport gets halted. Although three years have elapsed since the bridge was swept away, the concerned authority has turned a deaf ear to their problems, said the locals.

Neither the local nor the provincial or federal government has taken the initiative to rebuild the bridge, which has intensified the plight of the locals.

Local government must voice the concerns of the locals. If the local government becomes indifferent to the plight of the locals, who would address the grievances of the locals? Asked Birkha Sunuwar, a local. 

 “The municipality has remained indifferent to the problems faced by the locals, despite journalists having shed light on this issue time and again,” he said. 

The issues raised by the locals and reported by journalists have not been heard by the concerned authorities, he lamented.

The Chairperson of Ward No. 10, Moon Bahadur Thapa, said that he has repeatedly raised these issues in the municipality, but his concerns have not been addressed. 

He said that since the issues he raised in the municipality remained unaddressed, he has stopped lobbying for building the much-needed bridge.

He further said that since the mayor and deputy mayor elected in the municipality belong to different parties, coordination and collaboration to reach a consensus for the benefit of the locals have become difficult.