Millions of rupees funneled to improve the physical planning and infrastructure of the city over the past few decades have clearly failed to yield desired results. [break]
Last year alone, Rajbiraj Municipality spent Rs 5.6 million to clean the city. Additional Rs 2.496 million was paid to the municipal employees.
If money is not the real problem then what is?
The stakeholders blame the mismanagement of drainage and poor hygiene culture of the locals for the mess. The situation has also been compounded by the population pressure.
Rajbiraj, the headquarters of Saptari district, has an extensive network of roads that intersect after each block of four houses. Such an infrastructure makes it easy to keep the city clean - but what if the drains that run along the road are always overflowing?
Such pathetic is the condition of many of the drainages during the day time that the pedestrians find it impossible to walk.
The municipal authorities admit that they have not being able to do enough to maintain the drainage, but are quick to hold the locals responsible for the most of the problems.
“Agreed that we have our weaknesses. But what can we possibly do when the locals are unwilling to cooperate?” argues Chief of Rajbiraj Municipality, Devraj Chaulagain.
He adds that had the people not left their livestock and thrown their household wastes on the roads, cleaning of the city would not have been this difficult.
Thansingh Vansali, who has been living in Rajbiraj for the last five decades, feels that the city was already turning into a mess when the regime of the Ranas, who designed the city, came to an end in the fifties.
Vansali, who is also the chief of Saptari Civil Society, has, however, not lost hope.
He opines that controlling leaking drainages, the livestock that freely roam the streets, and haphazard operation of vehicle parking lots should be the priorities.
Building more public toilets and dumping sites and educating the locals about the importance of hygiene and sanitation are the other urgent needs if the city is ever to be restored to its past glory.
Saptari´s district headquarters was relocated to Rajbiraj by the banks of the Koshi River after the massive flooding destroyed Hanuman Nagar some 84 years back.
The mapping and architectural designing of Rajbiraj was done by the then commanding officer general Babar Samsher and his assistant Prakash Samsher. The whole city was designed in a systematic manner over 60 beghas of land.
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