Ilam's youths block road for encroaching tea plantation

A road dug on public land in Kanyam of Ilam has been closed. After encroaching on the land of Nepal Tea Development Corporation and digging a road to a private land, the youth of Suryodaya closed the road.

After digging the road, the protesting youths had drawn the attention of Suryodaya Municipality a few days ago with the demand to fill the road. The youths had drawn the attention of the municipality with a demand to fill the dug road saying that the historic tea plantation on government land has been destroyed for personal use.

A few days ago, a road leading to private land was dug in Kanyam of Suryodaya Municipality-7 and some land of Tea Corporation was encroached. Yubaraj Basnet, a local said that the locals had drawn the attention of the mayor Rana Bahadur Rai on January 25 saying that the road was constructed by encroachment.

About 50 youths of Suryodaya, led by Sachin Subba, manager of Kanyam Tea Plantation, blocked the road using JCB. Manager of Kanyam Tea Plantation, Subba, said that the road was closed as it was constructed without informing them. He said that once they started digging the road, they built the road using JCV at night even after stopping it with a fence. According to Sharan Phago, a local youth, the land of plantation has been encroached by digging 6 meters of road in 12 feet of land excluding 15 meters of road. They have been accusing Suryodaya Municipality-6 Ward Chairman Shiva Kumar Basnet of digging the road.

Meanwhile, Ward Chairman of Ward No. 6 Shiva Kumar Basnet has been saying that he has no involvement in digging the road leading to the person's land. It is said that the road leading to Tatlo Gupti village has been extended as it is a small road. The locals have started demanding the removal of all the landscaping structures in the orchards.

In 2000, the privatization branch of the Ministry of Finance leased seven tea plantations in Ilam and Jhapa, including Kanyam, to the Shanghai Group of India for 50 years.