Residents of Rahaf and Bhul have to walk for two more days to receive local government services, and locals are frustrated that election promises have not been implemented.
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When looking at the map of Achham, the lowest peak is Rahaf and Bhul located in Turmakhand Rural Municipality-1. These villages are not only at the bottom of the map, they are also at the bottom in terms of geographical remoteness, development and access to the state. The locals are protesting, saying that they have not been able to experience development even after the local level implementation.
The residents of Rahaf and Bhul have to travel for two days on foot to reach Turmakhand, the center of their rural municipality. When it was Rahaf VDC, they had to walk for 5/6 hours to get administrative services. Now they are forced to travel for two days to reach the center of the local government. Local Dhan Bahadur Karki said that it is very difficult for the residents here to reach the center of the municipality. According to him, it takes an adult 15 to 18 hours to walk continuously. These settlements are about 200 kilometers away from the district headquarters. It is 100 kilometers away from the center of the rural municipality.
‘The residents of this area do not even have a safe road,’ he said, ‘On one side there is the fear of wild animals and on the other side there are ups and downs.’ The road along the banks of the Karnali River becomes difficult to walk during the rainy season. Karki said that there is no safe path even for walking. The dangerous path through the forest is surrounded by the Karnali River on both sides. According to him, after taking a car from Rahaf, one can reach Surkhet, the capital of Karnali Province, in three hours. To reach their own district headquarters, one has to travel by car for at least 8 hours via Dailekh. He said that even to reach Turmakhand, the center of the rural municipality, the residents here are forced to travel through half of Dailekh and half of Achham.
The former ward chairman of Turmakhand-1, Thir Bahadur Rawal, said that life here has become difficult due to the remote geography. Last November, a dirt road was connected to the village from the Karnali Highway. ‘But, vehicles do not ply.’ When the transportation cost of a sack of rice, which costs Rs 2500 in Dhungeshwor, Dailekh, is added, it exceeds Rs 4,000 in Rahaf,’ he said.
According to him, there are about 900 households in Rahaf. The population is 4,200. ‘During elections, there is a lot of promise of development, roads, vehicles and concrete bridges,’ he said. ‘Candidates do not come back after the elections.’
Ramesh Shahi of Turmakhand-2 Bhul said that he is forced to walk for two days to get municipal services. He said that even after going through such hardships, sometimes he does not get services on time. The main demand of the residents here is the construction of a motorable bridge over the Karnali River. ‘No one has cared so far,’ said former ward chairman Rawal, ‘Rahaf was used as a vote bank. We have been telling the MPs who won since 2064 that they will have roads, concrete bridges, and vehicles before the elections.’
According to him, the locals say that they have repeatedly requested the construction of a concrete bridge from Sharad Singh Bhandari, Bharat Saund, Yagya Bahadur Bogati and Pushpa Bahadur Shah, who were MPs from this area from 2064 to 2082, and Bogati who was re-elected this time, but they have not been heard. Angry after the bridge was not built, the residents of Rahaf decided to boycott this year’s House of Representatives elections. They agreed to participate in the voting only after all the parties made a written commitment to immediately solve the problems of Rahaf and Bhulu. However, even after a long time since the elections, that piece of paper has not been implemented.
