Kishore Paswan and his wife Ranjan of Jagatpur VDC-5 make it a point to visit District Administration Office, Saptari whenever they are in Rajbiraj, the district headquarters. But even a year after their marriage, the couple has not received the encouragement allowance. [break]
“We return empty handed every time we visit the district administration office. The government had announced to allocate budget for encouragement allowance to inter-caste married couples last year, but the announcement has not been implemented,” said Paswan.
Six other inter-caste couples in the district, who got married in 2012-13, also await encouragement allowance.
Saroj Kumar Mandal and Dibya Sah of Sambhunath VDC-1, Santosh Chaudhary of Udayapur and Indira BK of Panchawati VDC-5, Ashok Ram and Shova Mainali of Kushwaha VDC-2, Shivi Rajak of Goithi VDC-2 and Debu Kumar Basnet of Solukhambu, Kaual Kumar Rajak and Nandi Danku Mandal of Banaula VDC and Prem Kumar Das of Kachanpur VDC and Swaraswati Chaudhary of Morang have been identified by the district administration office as inter-caste couples.
In an attempt to do away with the caste-system prevalent in the Nepali society, the government had announced to offer an encouragement allowance of Rs 100,000 each to inter-caste couples.
Accountant at DAO Madhawi Karki squarely put the blame on the government. “We have identified inter-caste couples but we are helpless. We have not received the budget for distributing encouragement allowance to inter-caste couples,” said Karki.
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