बिहीबार, चैत १५, २०८०

Damak likely to boil: Industrial Park demands transparency, authorities continue to ignore concerns

Mohan Singh 16 Mar, 2021

As Nepal is set to leapfrog towards a developing country tag from amongst the long standing company of least developed countries, the proposed Damak Industrial Park – a part of the government’s mega industrialisation drive – has left the very stakeholders crying for justice.

The flagship Chinese investment under Belt and Road Initiative framework has failed to address basic issues on myriad socio-economic-environmental fronts . If not addressed expeditiously , it will have irreversible repercussions on the entire economic and ecological edifice.

As Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli recently laid the foundation stone of the Park- one of the largest Chinese direct investments in the country – he strongly marketed the controversial project by dubiously claiming that it would create “45,000 jobs in next two years”. While doing so, he conspicuously and sheepishly sidestepped and ignored the inferno of genuine mass protests. The rising din of sanguine cries opposing the project has in-fact metamorphosed into a popular mass movement seeking justice for poor,hapless and disempowered land losers, attracting wide support from varied kaleidoscopic sections of the society.

Though sycophants blindly pushing and supporting the project falling under Oli’s home turf claim that the infrastructure is all ready for grand launch, a quick check on the ground reality gives a contrasting picture. Notwithstanding the sordid tale of woes engulfing the caustic project, Oli had the temerity to project that “Infrastructure development for the project is expected to be completed in the next five years, employing tens of thousands of people.Modern industries will be set up inside the park helping the country’s industrialization.”

As Oli was indirectly ventilating his confidence over the Chinese project, he was mischievously elusive of acknowledging as to how the same project has also been drawing attention for all the wrong reasons! All this time while saddled in power Center, Oli had miserably failed to address the burning issues of land losers, adequate compensation and the way land mafias are calling the shots in the proposed Park.The Damak project has been rightly criticized, berated and derided on multiple issues of non-transparency, corruption, coercive land acquisition, environmental degradation, socio-economic pitfalls and significantly complete lack of public discourse.

Meanwhile the protests initially piloted by land losers and some progressive people have already taken bigger shape at the field level.FDNF, a Limbuwam political front, spearheading protests against the Park has been able to garner support from different quarters. Jan Jatis, Adivasis and other marginalised stakeholders have been the backbone of this all encompassing protest movement.

FDNF chairman Kumar Linden who has been at the forefront of this pro-people struggle has been reiterating that “the people’s movement is just a spark, more is about to come.”Significantly Linden has also flagged how other mainstream parties including Congress and the Communists have failed to understand the gravity of the situation despite repeated calls to stand against the wrongs being committed.
Linden has also been warning of another wave of intensified movement against the toxic project. Pertinently, the protest marches are being attended by increasing number of ethnic and grass root masses as the anger against the Chinese chicanery multiplies with every passing day.

As the saga in Damak unfolds, Oli has also been conspicuously ignoring other major issues related with Nepal’s northern neighbour, including how an artificial trade ban has been imposed at Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani border trade points for months, on the flimsy pretext of fighting Corona virus. Interestingly in the midst of inaugurating a private cancer hospital at nearby Birtamode just a few days ago , Oli was delusional enough to controversially assert that “export to Nepal’s southern neighbour would soon take an upward trend, necessitating regular repairs of the left side of the roads (As trucks carrying export items to India ply in large numbers towards the left side)”.Sadly all this cheap antics and nauseating political bickering continues unabated to this day, even as Oli remains publicly unmindful as to how his own backyard in Damak is precariously engulfed in a whirlpool of chaos, churning and turmoil, all due to incessant soliciting of controversial Chinese Damak Clean Park mega project !

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