सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Myagdi. Farmers of Bansakharka, Jaljala Rural Municipality-1 of Parbat, located near Beni Bazaar, the district headquarters of Myagdi, have been facing problems transporting oranges due to the lack of road upgrades. Bansakharka is a village in the Dhaulagiri region where a lot of oranges are grown.
Due to the lack of road upgrades from Kalipul in Myagdi to Bansakharka via Bagarphant, oranges have to be transported on winding and unpaved roads at high fares. Jagat Bahadur Khatri, a leading farmer of Bansakharka, said that it is difficult to transport oranges as large vehicles cannot reach the village. “It is a hassle, labor and time consuming task to pick a few oranges in small bulero jeeps and transport them to different parts of the country by truck,” he said. “Due to the road problems, the oranges are being crushed, crushed and rotted, causing losses to the farmers.”
Apart from the five-kilometer Beni-Bagarphant-Basakharka road, which was opened by locals after collecting donations ten years ago, there are two other roads connecting Baasakharka. The Beni-Mallaj-Basakharka road is five kilometers longer than the Beni-Bagarphant-Basakharka road, and the Mohanchowk-Mallaj-Basakharka road is 10 kilometers longer.
Although the road in the Mallaj area has been upgraded, after entering Bansakharka, one has to take risks on the narrow, uneven, and unpaved road. Two hundred households in Bansakharka are engaged in commercial orange farming. Ward Chairman Jag Bahadur Roka said that oranges worth 184.6 million rupees have been sold from Bansakharka this year alone.
After the orchards in other parts of the country are ready, oranges from Bansakharka are picked and sent to the market. A farmer sells oranges worth between 500,000 and 450,000 rupees annually. Ward Chairman Roka said that if the road is made easier, oranges can be safely and easily sent to the market, transportation costs will be reduced, and the travel time will be reduced from one hour to 15 minutes.
Although the Bagarphant-Basakharka road project was launched during the previous term through the then National Reconstruction Authority, the problem arose because the project was removed from the federal government’s annual program after the authority was abolished before it was completed, said Jaljala Rural Municipality Chairman Raju Prasad Acharya.
“After the Reconstruction Authority was abolished, we ran from the Road Department to Dolidar and the provincial government in search of the lost plan, but no documents were found anywhere,” he said. “We have taken the initiative with the federal and provincial governments to upgrade the road through a new process.” Through the old plan, 150 meters of road slope and In some places, only walls and drains have been built.
To highlight the road problems, on Magh 11, the rural municipality and ward offices invited Gandaki Province Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey, Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives Padma Aryal GC, Minister for Industry and Tourism Mitra Lal Basyal, National Assembly member Manarupa Sharma, and Provincial Assembly member Bhakta Kunwar to hold a Suntala Festival in Bansakharka to draw their attention.
Chief Minister Pandey, ministers, and lawmakers who attended the event had committed to upgrading the road connecting Bansakharka and making arrangements for the smooth transportation of agricultural produce, including suntala. The provincial government has allocated a budget of Rs 3 million for the Bagarphant-Baskhark road in the current fiscal year. Last year, a 45-meter-long bailey bridge was installed on the Kaligandaki River, which flows through the border of Kalipul, Beni Municipality-8, and Bagarphant, Jaljala Rural Municipality, through the federal government’s Beni-Jomsom-Korla road project.
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