By Dhirendra Prasad Sah,
Rajbiraj, Mar. 15 : Khando Victims Struggle Committee of Titathi Koiladi Rural Municipality staged a demonstration in front of the office of Khando River Management Project in Rajbiraj on Sunday demanding control of the natural flow of the Khando River to prevent flooding and inundation during the monsoon.

Led by the Rural Municipality’s chairman Satish Kumar Singh, the residents of Ward No. 1 Belahi tabled their concerns and submitted the attention letter to the project chief Rewakant Yadav.

Every rainy season fear of flood looms large for the Tilathi locals. Just last year, the rain-swollen Khando River wreaked havoc in its wake, destroying houses, sweeping away livestock and rendering acres of fertile land uncultivable.

“If the situation is not taken under control, come monsoon season, the residents of Belahi and Rampura have no choice but to relocate elsewhere,” said chairman Singh.

With no embankment, the Khado river every monsoon breaches the banks and waters gush into the settlement.

According to Singh, the Khando River Management Project has been turning a blind eye to the plight of the locals.

“Despite continuous demand for building sturdy embankments, the Project has remained oblivious to our concerns,” he added.

After staging a demonstration and circling the project office as protest, the chairman-led group handed over the attention letter with an ultimatum.

The letter states that if the construction of the embankment does not begin within the next seven days, the group of activists and locals alike will be taking to the streets and staging step-wise protest.

Accepting the attention letter from the committee, project chief Yadav informed that the work on embankment had stalled as a result of a lack of budget. “Despite repeated requests to the Ministry, no concrete initiative has been taken,” he said.

The problem has been further aggravated as the contractors and engineers who were commissioned the building of the embankment have not yet received payments for the work done last year.