Strike hits Kailali, Kanchanpur
HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE TIKAPUR: Electricity consumers affiliated to various cooperatives set up under Rural Electrification Project initiated with Danish assistance in some 36 VDCs in Kailali and Kanchanpur, enforced a strike in Kailali today demanding an end to load-shedding and exemption from the listed debt, among others.
Due to the strike, all factories, offices, schools and colleges across the district remained closed.
The strike also brought vehicular movement to a halt, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. Police reported a minor clash with the strike-enforcers at Lamki. The consumers’ protest was fuelled by the government’s unjustifiable act of making the consumers pay certain listed debt in return for electrification. As per the project, a total of 216 rural electricity co-operatives in Kailali and Kanchanpur have been established to collect and pay off the listed debt. In Kailali alone, there are 156 co-operatives with 36,168 houses registered under it.
The co-operatives there have to pay off Rs 121, 462, 979 of the listed debt with the co-operatives at Kailali and Kanchanpur together having to pay more than 300 million in 20 years.
Along with the demand for an end to load-shedding and exemption of the listed debt, the consumers have been demanding interest on their security deposits. They have also been demanding that the electricity authority provide the co-operatives with the lab-tested ‘energy meter’.
Due to the strike, all factories, offices, schools and colleges across the district remained closed.
The strike also brought vehicular movement to a halt, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. Police reported a minor clash with the strike-enforcers at Lamki. The consumers’ protest was fuelled by the government’s unjustifiable act of making the consumers pay certain listed debt in return for electrification. As per the project, a total of 216 rural electricity co-operatives in Kailali and Kanchanpur have been established to collect and pay off the listed debt. In Kailali alone, there are 156 co-operatives with 36,168 houses registered under it.
The co-operatives there have to pay off Rs 121, 462, 979 of the listed debt with the co-operatives at Kailali and Kanchanpur together having to pay more than 300 million in 20 years.
Along with the demand for an end to load-shedding and exemption of the listed debt, the consumers have been demanding interest on their security deposits. They have also been demanding that the electricity authority provide the co-operatives with the lab-tested ‘energy meter’.
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