The discussion scheduled to be led by the Chief District Officer on the Koshi Canal and road expansion has been postponed due to the absence of Indian representatives from the meeting.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
Locals have blocked India's work to upgrade the West Koshi Canal and expand roads after hundreds of impoverished families in Saptari were at risk of being displaced.
After complaints of displacement of poor families increased, Chief District Officer Tubaraj Pokharel had called the heads of the concerned local levels and representatives of the Indian side for discussions on Wednesday afternoon.
However, the discussion was postponed after the Executive Engineer's Office of Kunauli, the Western Koshi Canal Division of Supaul district in Bihar state, India, and representatives of the construction company, which is implementing the plan, did not attend the meeting.
As the Indian side was not present in the meeting, the locals led by Mayor Birendra Majhi of Hanumannagar Kankalini Municipality stopped the canal upgrading and road expansion work being done in the Bhardaha area of the same municipality-1 on Thursday afternoon.
According to Mayor Majhi, the Indian side has unilaterally moved forward with the work without informing the local level about the extent of the area and what kind of work will be done.
'The work has started without even informing us,' he said, 'According to the work currently being done, about 200 poor families living north of the canal in our municipality alone will be displaced. The municipality does not even have the budget to manage them immediately.'
He stressed that the canal upgrading and road expansion work should be transparent and implemented in accordance with the Koshi Agreement.
Hundreds of poor families in Hanumannagar Kankalini, Dakneshwari and Rajbiraj municipalities, and Mahadeva, Chinnamasta, Bishnupur, Rajgadh and Tilathi Koiladi rural municipalities are at risk of being displaced due to the canal upgrading and the accompanying road expansion.
