Damauli, Dec 15 (RSS):

Bhanu municipality in Tanahu district has provided around 70 per cent of subsidy in procuring the machine used for producing birke topi also known as Bhanu Bhakta-styled cap.    
The traditional cap was popular during the time of pioneering poet Bhanubhakta Acharya around 200 years back in Tanahu where Bhanubhakta was born. It is mostly worn by men coupled with traditional daura suruwal for formal functions.    
Bhanubhakta is the first poet, Adikavi, of Nepali language and is one of the luminaries of Nepal.    
The machine costs Rs 17,500. A group of six women who were imparted training on making such caps last June would chip in rest of the amount to buy the machine, according to Bhanu municipality.    
Municipality's Deputy Mayor Aasha Thapa said that the machine would not only help in income generation for the local women here, but it would also help in production of such caps.    
Furthermore, the move would contribute to preservation of traditional value of iconic caps that was once the traditional attire of men in Tanahu, she added.    
Mayor Udayaraj Gauli informed that the municipality would help in marketing the caps made by these trained women. The municipality is soon going to make the cap mandatory in the schools and government organizations inside the municipality.    
The people's representatives (male ones) were asked to put on the Bhanubhakta cap as a staple of their uniform since mid-June this year but the incidence of non-compliance is rife, the locals complained.    
Amid this, the municipality is mulling how to make it more suitable for people of all age group and all-weather friendly, shared Kripahari Ladauri, Chief of social development section in the municipality.