The Marsyangdi Valley Save Campaign has locked down the liaison office of the Marsyangdi Valley Hydropower Project (Divya Jyoti Hydropower Limited) located in Besisahar Municipality-8 on Sunday.

Regarding the lockout led by the campaign coordinator Ram Bahadur Thapa, the campaign has accused the project of not completing the necessary legal process (due process), not providing important documents requested under the Right to Information Act, and not following the provisions related to environmental protection and public hearing as per Section 42 of the Forest Act 2076 BS. The campaign has protested saying that the work is being carried out without the participation of local stakeholders and directly affected communities.

Suresh Kumar Pradhan, Secretary of the Marsyangdi Bachau Abhiyan, said that the District Administration Office has been informed about the lockout. The campaign has also warned that the agitation will continue until the demands are addressed. The campaign has been making a single-point demand that the proposed 50-megawatt Marsyangdi Besi Hydropower Project near Besisahar Bazaar not be allowed to be built. 

According to them, the project will affect religion, culture, tradition and human civilization, water and its sources will be blocked, natural beauty will be destroyed and the livelihood of the locals will be taken away. The

campaign has pointed out the risks of excessive soil erosion and landslides, deterioration of the environmental life cycle, increase in the surrounding temperature due to the absence of rivers, increase in deficient and excessive rainfall, and the risk of glacier explosion and major floods breaking dams due to imbalance in the environmental system. They say that this can cause great loss of wealth and people. River-based tourism and other businesses will be closed, the life of water-dependent animals will end, large machines and explosions will affect the landscape, and the land will dry up and the settlement will turn into desert. According to the

project, there is a plan to build a dam on the border of Besisahar Municipality-6 and Letephant of Ward No. 10 and build a power house under Saldanda in Besisahar Municipality-10. However, due to the campaign's obstacles, construction has not been able to proceed at present. Although it was officially announced that construction would start from Mangsir 5, the work was stopped after a protest in Besisahar on Mangsir 3. Earlier, the campaign had also seized the keys to the machinery and equipment used in the construction, saying that the work was being carried out in a negligent manner.