The Ministry of Home Affairs has sent a letter to the district administration office as per the old rate, following the recommendation of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and keeping the farmers of Mahottari Bardiwas, who are protesting against the compensation, in Ranbhulla. Instead of resolving the compensation dispute, the farmers of Bardiwas staged a dharna at the railway department on Friday expressing their disagreement with the old rate fixed in the correspondence.
The farmers of Bardiwas have been staging a dharna at the Railway Department office in Kathmandu since Thursday because of the delay in resolving the dispute regarding the compensation of the land acquired by the Railway Department. Due to the compensation dispute Broad gauge has not been extended to Bardiwas.
Although the broad gauge has been constructed from Jayanagar to Bhangaha in Mahottari, the train service has been put into operation, but due to the compensation dispute, the train work has stopped in the Bardiwas section. "Even though we have been petitioning and meeting for a long time, we have reached the stage of hunger strike through the final stage of dharna and relay hunger strike without any initiative to resolve the compensation dispute," said the attention letter given to the Railway Department by the Railway Project Sufferers' Struggle Committee, Bardiwas.
Neeraj Adhikari of Sangharsh Samiti warned that if the compensation dispute is not resolved, the work of the railway project will be interrupted. "For a long time, we have only been entangled in compensation," said the official, "if the compensation is not distributed in a reasonable manner, we will disrupt the work of the railway." The struggle committee has expressed anger that no action was taken against Ojha even after Janakpur railway office chief Vinod Ojha informed the department with proof that the compensation was distributed in violation of the rules.
Ajay Kumar Mull, director general of the railway department, assured to settle the compensation dispute with the protesting farmers. We are sitting on a sit-in. The director general has done a confusing job by calling for talks to resolve the dispute,'' said the official.
