The more things change

The long march for Chure conservation is suggestive of Nepali state’s neglect of the grassroots.

Federalism in Nepal is alive and kicking. Eight-and-a-half years after the new constitution institutionalised a three-tier federal state, the provinces, the second tier, neither have police forces of their own nor can they employ their own civil servants. Whenever there is a change of government in Kathmandu, or even a change in coalition partners for that matter, the provincial governments too are invariably rocked. Oh, and when folks in other provinces face some problem, they have to troop all the way to Kathmandu for redress. Sugarcane farmers have repeatedly made the long march from various districts in the Tarai-Madhesh in order to demand a decent price for their produce. The same is the case with the 22-member Chure and Forest Conservation Campaign team that is currently marching from Bhardaha of Saptari district to Kathmandu. Their goal is to garner the national government’s attention on the destruction of the Chure region, a string of low hills stretching from Mechi in the east to Mahakali in the west.