“The VDC office was set on fire. The fire caused the collapse of the upper floor, besides damaging various important documents and the furniture,” said Raut. “It has now become difficult for us to carry out our work.”
Most VDC secretaries in the district have become worried after agitating cadres of the Tharuhat Autonomous State Council (TASC) burnt down over a dozen VDC offices including Hapur VDC in course of their strikes recently.
The displaced VDC secretaries began to carry out their regular work with all necessary documents kept in a bag after Tharu activists burnt down 13 VDC offices during the 12-day strike in the Tarai districts.
“We are now left with no alternative but to either come to the District Development Office or keep all necessary documents in a bag for carrying out our regular work,” said Surya Prasad Belbase, secretary of Soudiya VDC.
He said that all documents were destroyed by fire. “I am still in a dilemma how to carry out regular work. It has been very difficult to cope with the problem,” he added.
Tharuhat State Management Committee had vandalized various VDC offices including Tarigaun, Soudiyar, Dhikpur, Hapur, Lalmatiya, Sishaniya, Bela, Rajpur, Dhikpur, Sonpur, Gobardiha, Satbariya and Gangaparaspar in Dang district in a move to ´boycott the local state.´
VDC secretaries said fire destroyed all important documents including birth, marriage and death certificates. Agni Neupane, secretary at Narayanpur VDC, said the secretaries are forced to become displaced from their respective VDCs due to the Tharuhat strikes. “They had shut down the VDC offices alleging that we failed to provide them donations. Now we are forced to make our own security arrangements in view of arson activities,” added Neupane, who is also Dang district general secretary of the VDC Secretaries Welfare Protection Center.
After Tharu activists began torching VDC offices the District Administration Office in Dang directed all VDC offices to keep their documents in a safe place like a nearby police unit.
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