BAGLUNG, Dec 22: Ram Bahadur Gaine of Galkot Municipality is elated to roof his house with zinc sheets instead of hay or thatch. Earlier, he was compelled to replace the thatched roof of his house almost every year. Now, he no longer needs to worry about that regardless of the weather. "Now, I am relived for years. I don't even have to collect hay to cover my roof," said Gaine.

Recently, the ward office of Galkot Municipality-3 distributed corrugated zinc sheets to its locals at free of cost. Ward chief Bir Jung Bhandari said that the purpose is to make the village free from thatched roofing. "We had formulated a policy to change the roofs of the poor and destitute and we implemented it," said Bhandari. 

Most people receiving the zinc sheets belong to the Dalit community.

"Most houses of Dalit families had thatched roofs which easily catch fire," said ward chief Bhandari, adding, "Now we want to create an exemplary ward by creating a village with houses that look similar." 

Bel Bahadur Bohora, a member of the ward, said that a budget of Rs 600,000 had been sanctioned for buying zinc sheets for the locals. 

"We knew that the living standard of people will gradually improve if we changed their housing first," said Bohora. According to him, the poor and minorities living in Bohoraphant, Barahathan, Kotmaidan, Syala among others were provided with the corrugated zinc sheets.

The local unit has announced to provide zinc sheets for free to the villagers willing to change their roofs. 

However, such villagers will have to bear the cost of labor. Him Bahadur BK, one such villager, expressed his greatfullness towards the ward office for the free zinc sheets. 
Some of the locals were provided the zinc sheets a year ago while some received it this year. "After working hard all day long, we don't want our people to sleep under leaking roofs," said ward secretary Anand Sharma.

 
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