JHAPA, March 12: Located in the easternmost corner of the country, Jhapa is widely considered as one of the most prosperous districts. We often hear people saying that ‘Jhapa is in the foremost position in every aspect’. There is, however, another side to this story within the district that many have overlooked.
There are over a dozen of village development committees (VDCs) in the so called ‘prosperous’ Jhapa where there are no health posts or doctors, or even a meter of road is black topped. Let alone the basic facility of drinking water that remains a far cry for thousands.
Many members of some extremely impoverished communities in the district are still forced to drink river water that contains too much iron.
Some VDCs even lack a single school, let alone electricity. Some of the locals have not even seen an electricity pole in some of the impoverished VDCs.
They have to struggle to get basic facilities which their neighboring districts are enjoying with ease. No wonder many locals take it as sarcasm when people tell them that Jhapa is very prosperous.
“People see our highways, which lead them to think that the district is developed. Perhaps their mindset of prosperous Jhapa would change if they look at the plights of locals residing in the southern part of the district,” said Daya Ram Dahal, a local of Baniyani VDC-4.
“Though road access is the prerequisite for development, our roads do not connect many VDCs. We are deprived of many basic facilities, including schools and health facilities,” he added.
According to him, stories of people living in the southern parts of the district are totally different from what others may notice at first glance. As a matter of fact, many locals from those areas feel that the government has cheated them in terms of development.
Locals said that Gherabari, Balubadi, Kechana, Pathariya, Pathamari, Baniyani, Prithivinagar, among others VDCs are still lagging behind in development of basic infrastructures.
“None of these VDCs has even a meter of blacktopped road,” informed Basanta Baniya of Balubadi. “There is no project ensuring clean drinking water in these VDCs. Facilities of telephone and healthcare are a far cry,” added Baniya, who is also the coordinator of the newly formed Southern Region Development Committee (SRDC), Jhapa.
Most of the locals complain of not having access to education and schools. There is not a single high school level education institute in Pathamari VDC. Likewise, there is one school in Baluwadi VDC that has just been recently proposed as high school.
Lack of healthcare facility is the biggest hurdle faced by locals in this part of the district. The zonal hospital is around 17-30 kilometer away from these locations. Although many villages have one health post each, most of them are not operational in lack of medicines and health workers. Locals have to go Bhadrapur for proper treatment.
When nine-year-old daughter of Ashok Sunuwar, Pathamari-7, suddenly fell one evening he rushed her to the nearest health post. But there was no one at the health post to attend to her. Desperate he had to take her to Bhadrapur for treatment but he could not find an ambulance as only ambulance in the area had been non-operational.
“Thankfully my neighbor helped me take my daughter to Bhadrapur. The three of us rode 17 kilometers of very difficult roads to reach the hospital in Bhadrapur on his bike,” he said.
The situation would have been completely different had his daughter fallen sick during monsoon. “Most of the transportation in the southern parts is halted during monsoon. I do consider myself fortunate as the monsoon has not started yet.”
“We need development in our part of this district. But seems while others think we are prosperous as Jhapa residents, we will be never able to experience the fruits of development in this region,” Sunuwar further added.
Over 10,000 people, mostly consisting of marginalized communities including Janajatis and Muslims, live in the southern area of the district.
Most of them do not have access to telecommunication. The service is only limited to government offices like VDCs, police posts and post offices. Political parties are taking these areas only as a source of earning votes, Sunuwar claimed.
The villages are still relying on oil lamps and lantern as they have no access to electricity. “We are still living under hopes of development.
But our plights and problems have remained unchanged for years,” said Masruddin Ansari, a local Muslim leader.
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