MYAGDI/KATHMANDU: Prime Minister’s visit to Mustang — a far-flung district across the Himal — today led the locals to pour their hearts out on the happy occasion of Tihar.
Jigme Parwal Bista (76), known as the Mustangi King and his family members, too, joined the chorus.
“Bista’s son is cut with the government for revoking their allowances and other facilities after the nation was declared a Republic,” said Raghuji Panta, political advisor to the PM.
The Mustangi king also handed over a memorandum to the PM, demanding renovation of his 500-year-old palace.
“We’re yet to go through their demands in details,” added Panta. Nepal lent a patient hearing to the king and his kin’s grievances.
Mustangis have been clamouring for better road network between the district and the Tibet Autonomous Region and better civic amenities. They want a hydel project at Dhami Khola and renovation of the Narsin monastery as well.
With the dignitaries few and far between in this part of the world, the PM received as many as 30 memorandums and charters of demand during his visit to Lomangthang, the Upper Mustang, Muktinath and Jomsom.
Communication, thanks to lack of blacktop, remains the biggest problem for the locals.
They also pleaded for a proper road link between Jomsom — the district headquarters — and Damodar Kunda and Tilicho Lake.
The PM got a first-hand feel of the impact of climate change as well.
Chhoser VDC locals pointed out to him that water level in the reservoirs were depleting fast due to acute lack of rainfall.
Nepal, who offered puja at the Muktinath Temple, pledged to look into their “genuine demands”. Locals complained to the PM that no head of state had ever visited them since 1990. The late king Birendra, however, went to the district many times.
Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Dipak Bohara, UML leaders Amrit Bohara, Pradip Nepal, KP Sharma Oli, UML CA member Shreemaya Thakali, Lilamani Poudel, and member secretary of National Nature Conservation Trust Juddha Gurung along with senior officials accompanied the PM.
The PM could not hold an interaction with representatives of the government, NGOs, civil society and parties in Jomsom due to the Maoists’ protest. They greeted the PM with black flags there.