It has been 25 days since a group of Baitadi locals at Jhulaghat border point in Baitadi district have been staging a relay hunger strike demanding a cemented bride over Mahakali river in the bordering point with India.

Jhulaghat Cemented Bridge Construction Struggle Committee Coordinator Nar Bahadur Chand shared that they have been trying to attract government’s attention towards the issue for so long but it has not come under their radar yet. Chand said that they would continue with their protest until their demand was addressed.

Another member of the Committee Deepesh Shah argued that since the border point is linked with the development of the far western region, construction of a bridge here has been deemed very important.

Participants of the protest include representatives of various organisations including transport entrepreneurs, construction entrepreneurs, and hoteliers among others. They also warned that if their demands were not heeded, they would stage relay hunger strike in Maitighar, Mandala in Kathmandu as well.

Around 10,000 locals here had collected their signatures and had handed over a memorandum to then Indian Ambassador to Nepal in 2002. They had also handed a memorandum to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in 2018 for the construction of a motorable bridge in the border point. The suspension bridge had been built by the East India Company over Mahakali Bridge around 150 years ago.