Sunsari, September 16

Bhedetar, a major tourist destination of Province 1, is stinking as the dumped garbage has been left uncollected for the past one-and-a-half months.

Majority of Bhedetar lies in Dhankuta’s Sangurigadhi Rural Municipality while some areas lie in Dharan Sub-metropolitan City. Dharan sub-metropolis has been collecting garbage regularly while Sangurigadhi Rural Municipality has stopped picking garbage from its territory.

An agreement was reached between Dharan sub-metropolis and Sangurigadhi Rural Municipality that Dharan would collect the garbage for some time.

Dharan sub-metropolis Environment Officer Bhesraj Ghimire said his office had collected the garbage from the rural municipality for the past three years. “Now, we have stopped collecting garbage from the territory of the rural municipality,” Ghimire stated.

According to him, Dharan sub-metropolis had been collecting two tractors of the garbage from Bhedetar twice a week. “We have not requested the rural municipality to collect garbage in writing and we do not know how long we should collect the garbage,” he stated.

Proprietor Biswo Shrestha of Hotel Binayak and Lodge in Bhedetar said that flies from the garbage had been swarming to his kitchen. Our repeated pleas have fallen on the rural municipality’s deaf ears, Shrestha complained.

Dreams Hotel and Lodge Proprietor Akash Acharya said that they had to cover the garbage when guests visited the hotel.

Sanguruigadhi Rural Municipality Chair Kumarjung Yakha said they were working to find a permanent solution to the garbage problem. “We shall start collecting garbage only after Dashain and Tihar,” Yakha said. He informed that they had found a dumping site, purchased a tractor and managed a driver and a helper as well. He said that he had already talked to acting Mayor of Dharan and requested her to direct Dharan sub-metropolis to collect the garbage for the time being.