Rolpa, June 19

Nearly ten years after the Maoist insurgency ended in Nepal, Rolpa, the headquarters of the then insurgents CPN-Maoist during the civil war, is finally returning to normalcy.

Durga Bahadur Khadka of Sulichaur, Rolpa said, “There was not a single day when we would not hear a gunshot. If there was no gunshot heard all day, we would be terrified, because it often meant something worse was coming.”

During the insurgency period, Sulichaur’s area police office had been destroyed completely after Maoist cadres torched it.

The Area Police Office was reinstated five years later in a rented building, and now runs through a well-facilitated building constructed three years ago under the Police Unit Reconstruction Programme of the Peace Fund Secretariat of the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction.

Today, then rebel forces and cadres of other political parties are working together to develop and reconstruct the war-torn district.

CPN Maoist Centre Central Member Maniram Budhathoki said people have got over their animosity and are now working together.

Inspector Sashidhar Adhikary informed that a negligible number of heinous crimes have been reported in the 20 VDCs of the district, including Sulichaur, Sipra and Ghumachal in the past three years.

VDC Level Peace Committee Chair Khimchandra Budhathoki said that the re-establishment of the police post has helped maintain law and order in the area.

However, all is not well in the district. Victims from both sides lament about the poor care given to them by the government.

Conflict victim Indal Prasad Yadav, currently undergoing treatment at Kohalpur Medical College, demanded that the government raise the allowance to people who were disabled in the conflict.

A person deemed profoundly disabled is currently given an allowance of Rs 6,200 per month.

“The government has to either increase this meagre allowance, or provide vocational training to help us earn a living.” Yadav said.

Sarjan Biru of Banke, who lost the use of his body below the waist during the conflict, asked the government to make complete arrangements for treatment. Biru said, “The conflict is now a thing of the past; the government must focus its energy on healing the wounded.”

Another conflict victim Sashi Bahadur Ale Magar from Bishala VDC, Dailekh, said the government needs to come up with reliable plans to help conflict victims.

The victims who were disabled during the conflict receive treatment at Kohalpur Medical College, under the Social Dimension/Support to Conflict Affected people funded by the Peace Fund Secretariat.

Member of the local Peace Committee Dang Bam Bahadur DC said that most conflict-related cases were settled after representatives from all the parties worked together.

He added that some problems had surfaced in the distribution of relief to the families of those who were killed, or who disappeared during the conflict as well as relief for the injured.