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Uttam Rai, a 39-year-old resident of Sundarrhaicha Municipality-7, visited the Purbanchal University Teaching Hospital complaining of pain in his legs. The doctor said there was a problem with his veins and recommended physiotherapy. But even after visiting the hospital for two days, Rai has been unable to meet a physiotherapist, let alone start his treatment.

“No one was there at the department,” Rai says. “As I couldn’t stand the pain, I went to Itahari to get treatment,” he says, adding that the sorry state of the hospital near his home makes him sad. “Patients who pay the minimal mandated OPD fees at times have to go home without treatment,” he says. “In addition, the OPD service is closed before noon.”

Nisha Parajuli of Sundarharaicha-7 took her child to hospital after her child ran a fever for two days. But doctors declined to take the child’s temperature saying that their thermal gun had run out of batteries, even as the battery just costs Rs 15. Following the episode, Parajuli rushed her daughter to Koshi Hospital, Biratnagar, 35km away,

Like Rai and Parajuli, hundreds of people visiting the Purbanchal University Teaching Hospital face numerous problems and are denied treatment as the facility in Goth Gaun reels under the effects of local politics.

“They tell you to take the patient somewhere else, right when you reach the hospital’s doorsteps,” says Madhan GC, a resident of Sundarharaicha. “People here have a hospital in their neighborhood, yet they have to travel long distances for treatment,” he adds. According to him, the doctors only show up at around 11 am and leave half an hour later.

The hospital employs nine specialist doctors, four medical officers, and 19 nurses. Says Arjun Parajuli, a resident of the city, “The hospital is ill-managed. Even the labs are dysfunctional.” He alleges that the lab has been rendered dysfunctional in cahoots with private labs that offer services at higher prices.

When ApEx visited the hospital last week, the OPD was open, but not a single doctor was in sight. There were a few nurses in the emergency ward. As the hospital doesn’t admit patients, all beds were vacant. The lab technician also didn’t show up for three hours.

Around 300 people from Sundarharaicha, Belbari and even Kerabari visit the hospital every day seeking treatment. But it is impossible to meet a doctor at the hospital as they are available only for a few hours, staffers say.

The hospital, which was established in 2009, was supposed to host a medical college. “But the management hasn’t done enough to meet the standards needed for a medical college,” a staffer says.According to the Medical Education Act, a hospital needs to have 100 beds to become eligible to run a teaching hospital.

The university has, however, been mentioning the hospital in its policy and programs and allocating millions of rupees for it. The university also hasn’t taken action against employees who work for private medical facilities to make extra money. 

The hospital administration chief Dhirendra Mallik says the hospital can’t admit patients due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The OPD runs till noon and the emergency services are available only for 13 hours,” says Mallik

Director Dr Bipesh Acharya admits that the hospital is in dire need of reform. “We are holding consultations with stakeholders. It will take time to improve our management,” says Acharya, who was appointed to the post last month.

A cache of drugs provided to practitioners by manufacturing companies as samples have been found stored in a house in Biratnagar.   

The medicines, which can’t be sold legally in the market, were recovered by a team of officials monitoring the supply of essential medicines during the pandemic. 

A team from the Department of Drug Administration and the police that found the medicines at Bhattimod, Biratnagar-16 impounded the drugs and started action against those involved. 

Sanjeev Kattel, head of the Department of Drug Administration, Biratnagar, said the drugs were stored in the house of Ravi Rajak of Biratnagar-16. A total of 46 cartons of medicines including antibiotics, cough syrups, sanitizer and pain killer injections were seized by police.

There is a drug store called ‘Jitu Medico Hall’ near Ravi’s house, which is run by his brother-in-law Jitu Rajak and Jitu’s wife Sheetal Pandey (Rajak). The monitoring team suspects that the sample medicines stored at Ravi’s home may be being sold illegally at the shop.

The medicine shop, registered under the name of Pralhad Prasad Simkhada, has been shut down by the monitoring team. Once the team found out that the shop was registered under one name and is being run by a different person, the store was shut and the involved persons have been ordered to present themselves at the department within five days. 

“It has been found that the person authorized to operate the drug store is Simkhada,” Kattel said, “But we shut down the shop as soon as we found out that it was being operated by other people.” 

According to Kattel, the recovered samples cannot be sold in the market. Usually when a new product is manufactured, the pharmaceutical companies send it to doctors as samples through their market representatives (MR) to inform them about it. However, Rajak and the team had been selling these samples as medicines by changing their labels. 

“Along with the drugs, we also recovered ATM cards and cheques of various banks during the raid,” Morang Police Chief SP Santosh Khadka said. “We found 168 ATM cards and 72 cheques of various banks.” 

Ravi Rajak, the owner of the house where the medicines were recovered, has been arrested. 

According to department official Kattel, manufacturing companies do not provide practitioners sample drugs on such a large scale.

Kattel also informed that necessary consultation and discussions have been started with the legal practitioners on how to take the issue of illegal drug storage forward.

There is a health desk at Rani in Biratnagar Metropolitan City-15 to monitor the health of people coming from India and maintain records. The desk was set up after the recent spread of coronavirus in India. At present, only two health workers are posted at Rani, the main entry point to Biratnagar, the capital of Province 1, from India’s Jogwani. 

They keep records of people entering Nepal from India by collecting their names, addresses, and the places of their visit. The health workers also take temperatures and inquire about people’s health conditions. 

Health worker Dilmaya Pariyar says it takes about five minutes to record a person’s details. “The number of people entering Nepal legally is very low,” says Pariyar. “Sometimes we get two to four people, sometimes there are none.” In the ongoing Nepali month of Chaitra (March-April), only 211 people—63 women, 17 children and 121 men—have entered Nepal through this checkpoint after completing the process.

However, an estimated 5,000 people have been entering Nepal every day using smuggling routes by evading security personnel, making the health desk at Rani useless. According to security personnel, traders in India’s Jogwani Bazaar have spread rumors that there will be a ‘lockdown’ in Nepal again. Following the rumors, the number of people going to buy daily necessities has increased. 

Consumer goods including food items are being smuggled into the country from the southeastern checkpoints of Morang district.  

A team led by Inspector Kamal Bahadur Adhikari of the Armed Police Force Border Outpost (BOP) Rangeli seized a batch of smuggled goods on the evening of April 2. The team also seized a mini-truck used in smuggling. Chief of the APF, Morang, SP Tirtha Poudel informs that the smuggled goods including sugar, wheat, rice and bran were taken under control from Dhanatti Toll in Rangeli Municipality-5, Amgachhi.

According to Poudel, the goods were recovered while they were being loaded onto a mini-truck en route to Nepal from India. The truck and illegal goods worth some Rs 1.6 million have been handed over to the Biratnagar Customs Office. One Bharat Sah, who runs a grocery shop in Belbari, Morang, is accused of being the mastermind behind the smuggling. Sah, it is learned, has been running the grocery store as a front and smuggling goods from India for a long time.

Sah has been absconding since his illegal imports including the truck were confiscated. According to Poudel, routine search was intensified after the driver of the truck the APF was trying to stop at the Nepal border fled. Poudel also confirms that smugglers have started using new means of transport after the APF increased surveillance at border checkpoints and went on high alert.

Chief of the APF, Province 1, DIG Vanshi Raj Dahal, has mobilized a special team to control illegal trade and boost security in border areas. In Morang, which has a 63.4 km-long open border with India, there are 11 border outposts of APF with the responsibility of maintaining security and controlling smuggling.

Assistant Inspector of Police (ASI) Tulamani Acharya stops a bus plying on the Koshi Highway at Dhat, Biratnagar and greets the driver with a Namaste. The driver, used to being shouted at by traffic police officers, is surprised. Acharya then requests the driver to desist from using pressure horns from now. The driver reciprocates the greeting, acknowledges the request, and drives off.

Likewise, ASI Kishor Niraula stops a honking truck at Virat Chowk of Morang on the East-West Highway. Niraula also greets the scared-looking driver with a Namaste and makes the same request. Niraula was informing all the drivers of vehicles on the road-section in the same way.

ASI Dhamendra Rajbanshi was similarly informing drivers on the Biratnagar-Rangeli road section at Karsia in Morang of the rule that bars the use horns except during emergencies. Putting his hands together, Rajbanshi also politely warns that in the future, strict action will be taken against those who break the rules. The drivers in turn commit not to honk.

Traffic police personnel deployed across all 92 units of Province 1 are busy on the roads, spreading awareness against honking, with their stern but gentle warnings.

Previously punished with fines and reproach, the drivers are surprised at this gentler approach of the traffic police. Pankaj Sah, a driver, says he is impressed. “We were scared every time a traffic cop stopped us. We feared we had unknowingly violated some rule and would now be slapped with heavy fines,” Sah says. “But now they’re stopping us only to give us warning. This is good. Everyone has to abide by the rules.” Sah finds the traffic police’s changed behavior and new approach persuasive.

As noise pollution has increased in the region, the traffic police recently launched a special campaign aimed at making the province a completely horn-free zone.

Chandra Bahadur Khadka, Chief Inspector of Morang Traffic Police, also urges drivers to stay within the limits set by traffic rules. The traffic police are using placards and one-minute stops to raise awareness. Non-compliance to rules will result in disciplinary action, Khadka informs.

Province Traffic Police Chief SP Sanjeev Sharma informs that the special campaign to control noise pollution will ban the use of pressure horns in all 14 districts of the province.

Horning was already banned in the province but the ban was not informed during the lockdown as there were hardly any vehicle out on the street at the time. But now the province is in a mood to strictly enforce the ban.

According to the Vehicle and Transport Management Act, a driver violating the ‘no horn’ rule can be fined between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500. SP Sharma informs that the rule will be deemed to have been violated if the driver honks under the pretext of overtaking, signaling, asking for lane change, and crossing intersections.

A small, old house submerged by monsoon floods. The sackcloth covering the structure wearing out. The roof, leaking. Chiltu Rishidev of Biratnagar Metropolitan City-16 sits quietly in front of his dilapidated house. You can make out lines of worry on his face even from a distance.

The daily-wage earner, who is also his family’s sole bread-winner, has been unable to work properly in the past eight months because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now he has reached a stage where he cannot provide anything for his family. “The pandemic has destroyed our livelihood,” he says. “It’s been a long time since people like us who survive on daily wages have had a proper meal.” He laments he can’t even properly feed his children when they cry of hunger.

Chiltu sees Dashain more as a source of financial burden than a time of merriment. “Instead of merriment, our Dashain this year will be spent in hunger,” he says.

Similar is the story of Bhuvan Rishidev of Biratnagar-16. Bhuvan, who had been feeding a family of seven from his daily wage, has lost his livelihood as well. “Whatever little we had saved has been spent on food,” Bhuvan says. “Now as Dashain enters the country’s affluent houses, all that we can welcome in our house are hunger and grief.”

Bhuvan’s house, built on public land, was also submerged by monsoon floods. Along with the house, the floods also damaged what little food they had in store, as well as their clothes and property. The family is trying to repair the damaged house, to make it livable, even as they have now been reduced to begging for survival. “It is heart-wrenching to see my children cry out of hunger. But there is no one to help us. The local political leaders, they are adept at using poor people like us as their vote banks. Seldom do they help us in any meaningful way.”

Poonam Rishidev of Biratnagar-19 squatter settlement also lost her livelihood due to the pandemic. She too lives in a small hut on public land. Poonam used to work as domestic help in various places, which helped her feed her family. “No one calls me to work anymore,” she says. “Everyone wants to eat good food and wear new clothes in Dashain, but my family is on the verge of starvation.”

Poonam’s children have been asking for new clothes this Dashain, she says, but she cannot afford any. Her first priority is making sure they get food. “I wish I could feed them properly every day. Clothes, we’ll manage with the old rags we have,” she says, recalling the past when she earned more, not less, during Dashain. Poonam has been taking out loans to arrange daily meals for her family. But now, even the lenders baulk at giving her anything, she says. “I kept my children happy by doing pots and pans in other people’s houses. But doesn’t the local ward office offer any help? “When we go there, we get abuses not help”.  

Biratnagar : The first meeting of the Province 1 assembly on Feb 5, 2018 had a fresh vibe to it. It hosted lawmakers, some of whom had donned their traditional ethnic attires, from all the 14 districts of the province.

  That was a year ago. Provincial lawmakers say that while they haven’t been able to meet all public expectations, the provincial government has taken shape and its work has gathered momentum in the last year. “In the initial days, because of lack of laws and frequent staff transfers, we couldn’t do much work, but now it has picked up pace,” says Sarwadhoj Sawa, a provincial lawmaker elected from Sunsari. “The government is working steadily to fulfill public expectations.”  

He says local bodies expect support from the provincial government in developing and implementing large-scale projects. It’s the provincial government that allocates budget for these projects. The projects are selected and the budget for them allocated based on the requests from local governments and the lobbying from provincial lawmakers. Because the provincial government is bigger than the local government, people stress that the former should get to allocate a bigger budget for various projects.

 Bir Bahadur Limbu, the chairperson of Taltalaiya Development Committee in Itahari, says that Itahari sub-metropolis has allocated a development budget of Rs 5 million for Taltalaiya. The provincial government, on the other hand, has allocated Rs 2.5 million for it. Limbu thinks the budget allocated by the provincial government is a bit small. “But I’ve heard that it’s the provincial government that makes the masterplan. It can support us in other ways. I expect a lot of support from it in the days ahead,” says Limbu. Now that the country has adopted a federal model and formed provincial governments for the first time, Limbu expects the Province 1 government to expand its areas of support and treat all projects fairly and impartially. 

 Province 1 Chief Minister Sherdhan Rai says that as provincial governments came into being for the first time in the country, he faces the challenge of starting many things from scratch.

Also Read:

Province 2: Learning the ropes of federalism

Province 3: Learning the ropes of federalism

Gandaki: Learning the ropes of federalism

Province 5: Learning the ropes of federalism

Karnali: Learning the ropes of federalism

Farwestern: Learning the ropes of federalism