The hills were severely hit by last month's Gorkha earthquake and its aftershocks, damaging many houses, and displacing thousands of local residents. Considering the impact, the DDC and DTO had banned mining and excavation in the district's northern and western hills.
The DDC had handed over the construction and maintenance of 33 km of roads that connects four villages of Makwanpur to two local user committees at the beginning of the last fiscal year by signing a Rs 3.5m agreement.The projects are scheduled to complete by the end of this fiscal year and with the deadline approaching, the user committees are pushing on excavators to meet it. "We're using excavators to complete the project on time," Madan Bartaula, president of one of the two user committees told Republica while expressing ignorance of issuance of restrictions on mining by the DTO and DDC.
"The DDC and DTO have not conveyed the committees about the restriction on the use of excavator for the construction project." Bartaula said that using excavators for mining is efficient and economical for his team that is assigned the construction and maintenance of 26 KM stretch of the total road. Binod Chepang, whose team is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the remaining 8 KM stretch of the road also expressed similar ignorance and reason.
The duo's account contradicts with official accounts. "The use of excavators was allowed in the area before the earthquake. The quake has severely affected some hills in the region making them more prone to landslides. Considering this scenario, we have now restricted use of excavators," Nirmal Pyakurel, chief of DTO, Makwanpur said.
Along with that, a team led by Chief District Officer (CDO) had inspected these VDCs in the aftermath of the quake and had urged residents from some these villages to vacate to safe locations after figuring out that some of the hills were severely cracked by the quake and are more prone to landslides.
Locals fear that the use of excavators for mining has been a serious threat to the lives of the residents living in the area, and condemned authorities for not checking and restricting illegal mining in the area. The April 25 quake and its aftershocks had destroyed 516 houses and claimed ten lives in Namtar, destroyed 170 houses in Khairang, destroyed 170 houses and claimed two in Bharta VDC.
Related story
Two excavators held for illegal sand extraction
