Biplab cadres help villagers with farm work

The leaders and cadres of the Netra Bikram Chand Biplab-led Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which has been labelled a criminal group and banned, are helping villagers with farming activities in different parts of Kalikot district. Members of the ‘underground’ party who were previosuly barely seen in the public have now started appearing in the fields of the villagers as a part of their ‘labor donation’ campaign.

The semi-underground members who have otherwise been active in strengthening their organization, claim they are helping the villagers to gain their trust and raise support for the party. The district secretary of CPN Kalikot, Manilal AD (Ranadeep), informs that it is only natural for the party to be helping the farmers and laborers, its main constituencies. “We are with the villagers and helping with all agriculture-related works that are done in a farmer’s household in the monsoon season,” says Manilal.

The campaign of contributing manual labor was started following the party’s central committee meeting. The meeting also decided on making the campaign more effective for the party’s growth. Party officials are busy helping villagers in the fields in remote areas of Palata, Pachaljharana, Raskot, Sanni Triveni and Narharinath rural municipalities of Kalikot district. “Following the party decision, we have been helping famers in these villages with corn and paddy plantation as well as with other farming-related tasks,” says Manilal.

‘Sahashi’, a central committee member of the Dalit Mukti Morcha close to CPN, also says it is natural for his party to help farmers in any way it can. He also dismisses claims that the Biplab-led CPN cadres are underground. “The people’s party cannot be too far from the people,” he adds.

People’s representatives under target
The CPN cadres have marked people’s representatives as their main target. This is confirmed by Shital Bista, the Bheri-Karnali organizer of the youth organization affiliated with the CPN. “Corrupt people’s representatives in the area are our target,” he says. “We will honor the representatives doing honest work but for those involved in bribery and corruption, the party will punish them. We are getting reports that corruption and irregularities are rampant in local bodies of Kalikot.”

He adds that the youth organization, with the party’s mediation, will investigate all irregularities. Bista alleges people’s representatives of swindling the budgets allocated for different projects. Many of these projects are dysfunctional and most of the money is transferred into their personal accounts, Bista claims. For this reason the party has locked down nine local level offices and 82 ward offices in the district.

Only this month, around 1,200 youth of the 10 districts under the Bheri-Karnali bureau vowed to be watchdogs for government work in the region. The party has also allocated funds to meet the basic expenses of its members who are actively involved in party growth.