Kathmandu, June 8, 2016:Â Altogether 48 police stations were destroyed in Rukum district, one of the epicenters of the decade-long Maoist war in the country. Almost a decade has passed since the insurgency ended in the country, but merely four of those destroyed offices are found reconstructed so far.
A field study report of a parliamentary committee on Social Justice and Human Rights states that district police office and area police offices at Chaurjahari, Rukumkot and Taksera of the district were reconstructed after the comprehensive peace agreement between the government and the then Maoist rebels.
“Rest other police stations have found to be restored, but not reconstructed in the district, which shows snail’s pace effort of the government on post-conflict reconstruction of the country,” committee chairman Sushil Kumar Shrestha said while unveiling the report at the committee meeting on Tuesday. He further said that the anecdote was just a representative case across the country.
After visiting Jumla, Rukum and Achham districts, the committee in its report, has stated that reconstruction work was deficient in all three districts and even rebuilding infrastructures were sub-standard due to various reasons. Taking part on discussions over the report of the committee, lawmakers expressed doubt over early reconstruction of quake-damaged infrastructures in the country.
After hearing the committee report, Peace and Reconstruction Minister Eknath Dhakal informed that only 30 percent of the total war-ravaged public buildings have been reconstructed so far as a result of insufficient budget.
“Government has allocated only 10 billion rupees for insurgency-era reconstruction, which is just one-third of the total need (30 billion). Thus the ministry has succeeded in reconstructing 30 percent of the total damages so far,” said Minister Dhakal in the meeting.
Head of the post-conflict reconstruction project at the ministry, Dhruba Paudel informed the lawmakers in the committee meeting that the government never allocated sufficient budget for the post-conflict reconstruction works.
However the committee chairman Shrestha claimed that budget meant for post-conflict reconstruction works was found to be misused in Rukum district for renovation of road, in the interest of influential leaders.
Similarly the committee has stated that though some public buildings are being reconstructed but no private infrastructure were found to be rebuilt in the visited districts.
The committee in its report has stated that buildings of district court, district jail and appellate court in Jumla have not been rebuilt within the deadline. Similarly only 6 of 24 reconstruction projects in Rukum have been completed so far. Similarly other four projects could not progress due to lack of budget. In Achham district, the committee has said that many VDC offices, police stations have been restored in rented buildings due to the lack of progress in reconstruction works.
The committee has also found that some of the reconstructed infrastructures in Achham district are sub-standard and vulnerable for use. “It has been learnt that some of the government offices in the district headquarters were sub-standard and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority is looking after the case,” reads the report.
In addition, the parliamentary panel’s report has stated that distribution of relief and reparation to the conflict-victims is not satisfactory in the three districts. The committee has further suggested forming a commission to settle land ownership transfer dispute. “We have found over 4,800 cases of landownership transfer which were done by Maoist-formed people’s government during the insurgency,” said the committee chairman Shrestha.
By Ashok Dahal
