PANCHTHAR: Limba and Durdimba -- located in the far southern region of Panchthar district, also known as 'Karnali within Panchthar' -- are close, yet far from their own district headquarters.

As the region in Miklajung Rural Municipality shares its border with Dhankuta and Morang districts, for locals, it takes only three hours to reach Dhankuta district headquarters and two hours to reach Biratnagar - the district headquarters of Morang. But it takes them about three days of walk to gain access to their own district headquarters.

Locals of Limba and Durdimba manage minor tasks on their own but face problems when they have to deal with land purchase and sales, apply for citizenship certificate and passport, among others. Denizens of Limba and Durdimba in Miklajung's ward no. 7 and 8 respectively have to travel a long way to reach Phidim, the district headquarters. Since there is no direct motorable road from the region to Phidim, service seekers are compelled to walk down to Kanepokhari through Letang in Morang and take a bus en route to the district headquarters from Jhapa via Ilam, locals of Limba said.

Likewise, a local of Durdimba, Jhagad Bahadur Thapa said, due to inconvenience in travelling, only a few people visit the district headquarters for land purchase registration and passport application.

Another local Ganga Maya Magar said women have to wait for the administration team to get the citizenship certificate. She said, majority of women had only heard about the district headquarters but had never reached there, adding that she herself reached there only at the age of 39.

According to Yamnath Neupane, a teacher at Bhagawati Secondary School in Durdimba, government employees, teachers and social campaigners in the region also face difficulty travelling to the district headquarters. As it takes either three days of trek or crossing of three districts by a vehicle, a service seeker has to spend Rs 7,000.

Locals are compelled to face such difficulty since the construction of road linking Limba and Durdimba with the district headquarters started about three decades ago but has not been completed yet, the teacher said. The 80-km road starts from Ranke and goes up to Phidim via Rabi, Kurumba, Limba, Chha Number Budhabare in Durdimba. It has been expected that locals would be relieved to a great extent with the completion of the road.