Dhading, December 8-Chepangs of Brusbang village in Mahadevsthan VDC, Dhading, submitted a memorandum to Dhading Constituency No 3 legislator Rajendra Prasad Pande, seeking a solution to the drinking water woes they have been facing for long.

In the memorandum, the Chepangs informed of their plight of having to make a long journey of more than four hours every day for a pot of water. There are some 31 Chepang families in remote Brusbang village that doesn’t have easy access to drinking water and other facilities.

Brusbang Food Rights Group coordinator Prem Bahadur Chepang, along with seven others handed the memorandum to the parliamentarian. They have urged him to shift them to a better place with facilities such as drinking water, electricity and school.

“As ours is a village away from other human settlement, we can’t get work on wage-basis and there is no way we can grow crops on the steep slopes without the facility of irrigation,” said Prem Bahadur Chepang, also ruing the famine they have had to grapple with every year, given the isolation of the settlement.

Earlier, the government had allocated 14 million rupees for drinking water and an income generating project here. “But as the project failed to kickstar, we decided to submit a memorandum to the leader in order to remind the government of the gravity of problem,” said Prem Bahadur.

Accepting the memorandum, Pande said the government was mulling over the idea of shifting the Chepang families to a better place.

“As shifting the settlement to a better place seems to be a better option to developing a drinking water project or the like in the remote place, the process for the same will start following discussion with Chepang folks in a week,” he said.

-HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE