Locals picketed the police office in Dewahi Gonahi of Rautahat and staged a demonstration accusing police of hindering development in their locality.

For the first time in the province, some 75 bigha of land had been integrated under a land pulling project at the initiative of Maulapur Municipality and at the advice of former federal parliamentarian Prabhu Sah. Lately, the land pulling project was filling the area with sand from the Lal Bakaiya River flowing between Maulapur and Gonahi.

This morning, however, APO, Dewahi Gonahi, Inspector Rajan Lamsal reached the site and stopped excavation from the river and seized two JCBs and four tractors .

Unhappy at the police action, a group of locals led by Dewahi Gonahi Municipality Deputy Mayor Paraniya Devi Patel picketed Dewahi Gonahi Area Police Office and held a demonstration against the police action today.

Commenting on the police action, Rautahat District Police Office Chief SP Binod Ghimire said police had fulfilled their duty given the mining that was seen as the cause behind the river changing its course. "There is a standard practice for excavating river products. No one is allowed to carry out mining in the river by breaching the government protocol; mining in the river with the use of heavy equipment such as JCB in the river bed is out-andout illegal," he said.