The incident took place at Putalisadak when Dangal, the first woman Safa tempo driver of Nepal, was transporting a sick woman, along with her friend, from Gairidhara to Kathmandu Model Hospital at Bagbazaar.[break]
“It will cost me around Rs 300,000 to fix the car. I can´t afford it so I haven´t gone to collect the car,” Dangal said on Monday. The car with its damaged windshield, bumpers, headlights and windows has been at Metropolitan Traffic Police Headquarters for the past week.
“Even though I said I was carrying a sick woman they stopped me,” she said, adding that the sick woman and she herself sustained minor injuries. Dangal approached the Maoists after the strike for compensation.
“I went to Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s house but the they turned a deaf ear and said it was the Home Ministry´s responsibility to bear the repair costs,” she said. She said police did not take any action after arriving at the scene that day.
“How am I going to pay my rent and feed my children now?” she said. In addition, the mother of two has to continue payments for the damaged vehicle, which she took on hire-purchase.
“I didn´t stop working for a day and transported the wounded to hospital during the movement back then,” said Dangal, showing the Curfew Vehicle Pass issued to her in April 2006. “Apart from being the means for earning my daily bread, the car is also my way of doing social service,” Dangal said.
“On May Day, a day for transport workers like me, the Maoists didn´t honor any laborers,” she lamented. "Instead, on the next day, they destroyed the vehicle of a true laborer who was only fulfilling her social responsibilities.”
Chandra Badahur Thapa, valley in-charge of the Young Communist League, denied Dangal´s allegations. “I don´t know about the incident,” he stated.
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