Himalayan News Service

Dipayal, March 1:

For the people in the far western region where there are very limited telephone and other communication facilities, Radio Nepal has been serving as a reliable medium for communication.

Every Sunday at 10.00 in the morning people here tune into the Radio Nepal to listen to Raiwar, a 30-minute-long radio programme in which letters from the radio listeners to their relatives are read out and the programme is getting popular every day.

The number of listeners of the radio programme produced and aired from the Dipayal office of the Radio Nepal has increased drastically after the Maoists destroyed telephone towers in the far western region, Pushkar Raj Gautam, head of the Radio Nepal Regional Broadcasting Centre Dipayal said. We receive letters from about three hundred listeners every week, he added.

Residents of rural areas in the region say they have been writing letters to the Raiwar radio programme to convey their messages to their relatives and this has gained more popularity after the telephone and postal services in the region have been disrupted.

“Mangalsen, the district headquarters of Achham has only two public telephone lines and the phone service operated through the V-SAT technology remain non-operational most of the time. The best option is to send a letter to the Raiwar radio programme,” Laxmi Kumari Sop, a resident of Bannatoli VDC of Achham. She said she had sent a message to her father, who is working in Bajhang, through the programme.

Telephone and postal services are limited to very few places in Doti, Achham, Bajhang, Baitadi, Darchula, Bajura districts.