Tanahun to construct Bakhan Singh Memorial Park

By Amar Raj Naharki, Damauli, Apr. 19: A park and statue are to be constructed in Tanahun in memory of Bakhan Singh Gurung, the pioneer of Nepal’s cooperative movement and its first cooperative campaigner. 

A programme held in Damauli on Saturday, marking the 127th Bakhan Singh Memorial Day, resolved to give concrete shape to the construction of a park and statue in his honour.

Mayor of Byas Municipality, Baikuntha Neupane, announced that the municipality would allocate budget to institutionalise Gurung’s contribution. 

“Honouring the individual who laid the foundation of cooperatives in Nepal is the responsibility of the state. The municipality could bear 50 per cent of the total cost of constructing the park and statue, with the remaining 50 per cent to be contributed by cooperative institutions in the district,” he said. 

Speaking at the programme on Gurung’s life and contributions, Devi Bahadur Basnet, a member of the Byas Municipal Academy, noted the significant sacrifices made by the Gurung family in establishing democracy and advancing social transformation. He informed that Gurung’s two sons, Dharma Dhwoj Gurung and Lal Dhwoj Gurung—who had entered politics after serving in the military and later rose to become ministers—also attained martyrdom during the democratic movement.

Pradeep Raj Adhikari, Chairperson of the District Cooperative Union Tanahun, stressed the need to develop Gurung’s birthplace, Pulimarang, and his area of work as a centre for cooperative tourism. 

Speakers at the programme emphasised that the construction of Gurung’s statue should be expedited, noting that it could serve as a centre of study and reverence for cooperative practitioners across Nepal while also promoting tourism.