HUMLA, April 7: Although K P Sharma Oli, during his first stint as prime minister in 2015, announced that the ‘tuin’ or rope crossings at rivers throughout the country would be replaced with bridges within two years, even people’s elected representatives in Humla district still need to use this perilous device to get to work.
Elected representatives at Kharpunath Rural Municipality in Humla risk their lives every day using the tuin to get across the river. Locals also need to cross back and forth in the same way with their loads of firewood and grass and to work their land on the other side of the river.
Even elected representatives use 'tuin' to cross Karnali River
Dhana Shahi, a member of Kharpunath Rural Municipality-3, said a survey has been conducted every year since the past five years to build suspension bridges at Musyadi, Bakchegauda, and Yangchu Kuna. “But nothing has come of it,” she complained.
Other local officials face the same predicament every day. “I shiver every time I cross the river by tuin,” said Vice Chairperson Sindu Shahi.
It is a fate shared by the elected representatives of adjoining rural municipalities as well. It becomes a real challenge when the sick or little children have to be taken across the river.
Chief of Kharpunath Rural Municipality Karna Rawal said he routinely receives demands from the locals for the construction of suspension bridges. “I also have to use the tuin to get to the office and I know what a harrowing experience it is. I have been doing what I can to get a suspension bridge built,” he said. “ But our budget is not enough.”
The tuins have been replaced with bridges in a number of places, but not in the far-flung districts.
