DAILEKH, May 8: Of late, the elected local representatives have started working on the various pledges they had made to the people before the elections held last year. Coincidentally, road connectivity has been the first priority for all local units as they have been spending a bulk of their budgets on road projects.
Mahabu Rural Municipality is spending Rs 60 million on road projects this year. A budget of Rs 10 million is being spent on the Taraghat-Kharigair-Gaidabaj road section alone – the largest budget being spent on any road project here.
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According to Janga Bahadur Shahi, chairperson of Mahabu, road connectivity should be prioritized as it is the only way the villages of this geographically difficult rural municipality could be connected to each other. Similarly, neighboring Naumule Rural Municipality has spent more than Rs 10 million for constructing a wide road. Bhadre Bhudhamagar, chairperson if Naumule, assured that the road connecting the rural municipality with the market will be graveled within this fiscal year. Like many other representatives of the district, Budhamagar thinks road is the first step towards development.
Likewise, Thatikandh Rural Municipality is spending more than Rs 15 million on connecting Ramghat to Thantikandh market. Thantikandh has earmarked a total budget of Rs 44 million for various road projects. Furthermore, Bhairabi Rural Municipality has made a plan to spend Rs 35 million on a road project this year.
Moreover, Gurans, Dugeshwor and Bhagwatimai rural municipalities too are spending a large amount of their budgets on road projects. In fact, all 11 local units of the district are pouring in a large amount of money to build roads. On the one hand, it's good that the local units are putting efforts to speed up road construction but on the other, they have been competing with each other in digging cliffs and hills rather than creating sustainable roads. Some of the representatives have even been accused of misappropriating funds and taking commission in coordination with various authorities.
In a rush to construct roads before others, most roads are being constructed against the standards. Though some local units sanctioned budgets for road projects, the work has been delayed time and again citing various reasons. Until mid-April, there was no progress in the road construction project of Athbiskot Municipality.
Lack of coordination between the consumers and representatives was the major reason behind the delay in the road project. Besides that, there has been a competition among the local units for buying dozers. In fact, it is hard to find a local unit without a dozer. Caption: Dozers working at a rural settlement of Dailekh.
