Criticism of the conservation workers and stakeholders after the contractor company excavated the Ghatgaddi without dumping the gravel-sand directly to the crusher industry.
At the end of the financial year, the local level calls for contracts for gravel-sand extraction from the river channels of their area. There is competition between contracting companies to get such contracts. The contractor who gets the contract through political maneuvering from the individual cannot execute the contract with the municipality during the excavation. The municipality has also turned a blind eye to the regulation of whether or not the contractor excavated according to the contract.
This year also, Butwal sub-metropolitan city of Rupandehi, Devdah, Tilottama municipality and Siyari, Suddhodhan and Gaidhawa rural municipalities have signed contracts for excavation of river channels in their area. After the contract was awarded by the municipality, which called for the contract in mid-May, the mining in Tinau, Danaw, Bhulhi, Charange and other rivers of the district is now intense.
After the contractor company excavated the river in accordance with the contract, did not put gravel-sand in Ghatgaddi and took it directly to the crusher industry, conservationists and stakeholders have criticized.
According to the civic leader of the district, the contractor group is making a mockery of the agreement and rules with the municipality and delivering the river material to the crusher instead of Ghatgaddi. "The Municipality, which has the responsibility of monitoring the mining and Ghatgaddi, has turned a blind eye to the regulation," said a resident of Siari-3, "The Municipality has planned the contract when the rains start and when the financial year ends. According to him, the contractor is transporting the gravel-sand collected by excavating the river to the crusher industry on the banks of Tinau.
Excavation is currently underway around the sensitive structures of Tinau and Danava. Due to the excavation at Nageshwar Ghat located in Suddhodhan-6, the concrete bridge is at risk . The bridge connects the 6th and 1st wards of the municipality. Jit Bahadur Rana, a local said that the bridge is not operational and is at risk due to excavation. According to him, contracts have been awarded for excavation in Simra, Panauta, Koluwa, Gurraunli, Dhanunaura, Madhuvani, Boharwa and Belwa ghats under the municipality. Among these, gravel-sand is being excavated from Sikoura and Dhanoonura ghats for the project.
Rana said that the settlement is at risk due to the excavation that is being carried out without preventing erosion. "We who live around the river have no idea," he said.
River and local residents around the river complained that monitoring is done only on paper . According to them, the local level ignores the excesses on the river. After the local level operation, the municipality has the responsibility of contracting and monitoring the river excavation. The source of revenue of many local levels of the district is river products. The contractor is taking advantage of the opportunity to excavate outside the area of environmental impact assessment.
The municipality has been making agreements with the contracting party on various points for excavation. According to the agreement, there is a condition that excavation should be done only from that area by demarcating the mining site in Rohbar of the municipality. There is a provision to dump river products extracted in this way only at designated places.
Excavation is being done from Gorkatta, Harpur and Bagdura Naka under Tilottama Municipality-6, Charange, Valuhi, Ghodaha and Khairhani under Devdah Municipality. Stakeholders have alleged that after excavating these areas, gravel-sand is directly delivered to the crusher industry.
Narayan Aryal, Chief Administrative Officer of Tilottama Municipality, said that any kind of distortion during river excavation was discouraged. This time, the municipality claimed that there was no irregularity as the municipality did not contract for the excavation in the name of the project and was doing the work in a competitive manner. He said that the municipality is conducting regular excavations and monitoring the Ghatgaddi site.
The district administration office has said that the contractor can do business only after he verifies how much material is available at the place where the sand is stored from the river.
Chief District Officer Vasudev Ghimire said that construction materials will not be taken in their raw state as soon as the project is excavated. "There is an agreement with the crusher industry to supply the river materials to the project only after processing them," he said. The municipality should be careful about it.
The administration will only look at the amount of material in Ghagagaddi and whether or not there is an environmental impact assessment, he said. "The concerned municipality will regulate how the goods end up from the place contracted by the municipality," he said.
