Kathmandu, January 30
Chief district officers of Dhading and Gorkha districts have refused to take the responsibility of distributing compensation to locals, whose land has been acquired by the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project, for the land.
Therefore, the distribution process has failed to begin though the government had published a notice for the locals to claim compensations around few months ago.
Total 2,120 landlords of Gorkha and 1,250 of Dhading districts have filed applications for the compensation. However, chief district officers say the project itself has to distribute the amount and they do not want to be involved in the project.
The refusal of top district officials has pushed the national pride project to a standstill.
The government had allocated Rs 10 billion for compensation to the affected in the budget announcement of this fiscal year.
Dhading CDO Shyam Prasad Bhandari says he has already returned Rs 200 million that he had received for the distribution. His counterpart in Gorkha, Jitendra Basnet, says he will distribute the amount received last year, but will not take the responsibility of this year.
Basnet says he does not want to continue the responsibility as they have not been given additional human resources and administrative costs for the task.
