Dang, August 6:

Mastavir Choudhary, 25, of Hekuli VDC-3, Dang, who was once chief programme producer and technician in a local Ghodaghodi FM has returned home an unemployed man. Choudhary left after Maoists looted the FM station at Attariya in Kailali. The ex-programme producer has gone back to farming. The FM station, run by the Backward Society Education (BaSE) with support from Danida and a Nepali environment journalist group, NEFAJ, was ransacked on May 18. All 22 employees of the FM station, including Chaudhari are jobless. Choudhary said, “The skills we had learned for the station are of no use. Now, I plough my field.”

Choudhary used to work as a co-producer for a programme in the Tharu language, Khyal, aired by the Regional Transmission Centre of Radio Nepal. He said he worked for the half-an-hour programme which was based on Tharu culture and tradition for over a year after which he was started working as programme producer for the Ghodaghodi FM.