40 Champawat villages without basic amenities

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, August 26

Over 40 villagers in the border area of Champawat district have decided to hold a demonstration in front of the District Magistrate’s office on August 29. They will be protesting in support of their demand for basic amenities such as electricity and drinking water and linking of remote Tamli village with the Champawat-Tamli highway.

“We had held a demonstration at the district headquarters to press for our demand but despite an assurance from the administration nothing has been done in the last one year. We are compelled to demonstrate again this year,” says Purushotam Joshi, former block pramukh and leader of the Talla Desh Vikas Mahapanchayat, who will lead the demonstration.

Villages situated along the Nepal border in Champawat district are without electricity and almost all of these are situated about 30 km from the Champawat–Tamli highway. “Local roads from Birmola to Ryal, Tamli to Grmukteswar, Simiauri to Uri, Lati to Aamra via Riyansi and Tarkuli, Manch to Dubar, Manch to Dubar and Bhamar to Rokunwar via Boyal, Gurukhoti and Bagoti that leaders had promised during the last election campaign have not been constructed. In the absence of these roads, the purpose of constructing the main Champawat to Tamli road has been defeated as local villages are 30 km away from it,” says Joshi.

Villagers say besides lack of roads to these villages in Champawat, some other remote villages are without electricity even 70 years after Independence. “Villages of Bagoti, Seri, Bhandara, Bakunda, Bunga, Chaukuni, Bheraghat, Seem, Chukka, Saurai Hrtola, Bakora, Katkara, Khatkiri, Gwani and Aamra are without electricity,” says Navin Singh Deopa, another villager from the Talladesh area.

He adds they have no piped drinking water supply and there are no teachers in schools. “We have to carry serious patients on palanquins and it takes them eight hours to reach the main road, sometimes leading to death in the absence of timely medical attention,” says Deopa.