As the House of Representatives elections to be held on February 21 draw closer, monitoring of polling stations in Narpabhumi Rural Municipality in the Himalayan district of Manang has not been possible.

With less than 2 weeks left for the voting, monitoring has been affected due to remote geographical conditions and cold weather. It takes 2 days to walk from Chame, the headquarters of Manang, to reach the polling stations in Narpabhumi. There are 5 polling stations, 3 in the Nar area of ​​Ward No. 1 to 3 of Narpabhumi Rural Municipality and 2 in the Fu area of ​​Ward No. 4 and 5.

According to Manang Chief District Officer Nawaraj Paudyal, the monitoring of all 9 polling stations in Manang Ngisyang Rural Municipality in Upper Manang was completed only on Wednesday. Although the monitoring of polling stations in Chame and Naso Rural Municipality in Lower Manang was carried out earlier, he said that the Narpabhumi center could not be reached.

The monitoring was stopped after the water flowing from the waterfall in the area above Dharamshala blocked the road. The waterfall water has frozen on the footpath made by cutting the mountain at that place, which is about 3,300 meters above sea level. Paudyal said that it is impossible to walk in other places as water has frozen on the road.

He informed that 20 security personnel from the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police have been deployed with shovels and shovels to clear the road. He said that information has not yet been received whether the security personnel deployed on Wednesday have been able to clear the road or not. It will take 6 to 7 hours for the security personnel to walk from Koto near Chame to reach the place.

‘There is no phone service in the waterfall area. Arrangements have been made for food and drink for 2 days. The place is very cold,’ he said, ‘We will reach the polling station in a few days if the road is cleared.’ He said that security personnel were sent earlier to take information about the road condition and were mobilized to clear the road based on the details received.

After it became almost impossible to travel to Narpabhumi, the village executive had moved forward with discussions on temporarily shifting the polling station to the district headquarters. However, the administration has stated that no formal recommendation has been received from the rural municipality after the locals expressed their disagreement. Chief District Officer Paudyal said that if there is no recommendation from the municipality, the demand cannot be made to the Commission.

There are a total of 488 voters in Narpabhumi rural municipality. According to District Election Officer Jeevan Kunwar, polling stations have been set up in each ward in all 5 wards. The polling stations have been designated at the ward office building of ward no. 1, Nar Basic School of ward no. 2, Samduchhiring Gumba of ward no. 3, Phu Basic School of ward no. 4, and the ward office building of ward no. 5.