janaandolan

Worst Time for Uttam: Uttam Pulamimagar, a farmer from Ghartigaun, Kavre, who was injured in Banepa sees his future bleak as he lies in Model Hospital bed no:230.

forgotten fighters of April revolution

Meeting half a dozen Janaandolan (People’s Movement) victims who are trying to cope with post-treatment life, our blogger probes beneath their dreams, desires, anxieties and sorrows and concludes that they have become forgotten heroes.
By Deepak Adhikari

When one enters into the building of people movement victims’ residence managed by Janaandolan Martyrs and Victims Welfare Forum in Gongabu, one doesn’t fail to notice the helpless and hapless victims of erstwhile Royal regime and now the SPA government. A former boarding school has been transformed into a shelter for the victims in Gongabu where during the April Uprising massive baton charging and firing resulted in huge numbers of injured ones.

All Smiles: Narendra Raule, an RR Campus journalism student

and victim of Janaandolan attends his practical exam in June 27.

Its ironical that the same people who fought for loktantra are neglected after achieving the goal. Forums’ president Kailash Timilsina, a B Sc student in Patan Multiple Campus narrates tales of state’s negligence to accommodate and apathy towards their woes. In July 25, some 40 victims were arrested from Putalisadak and taken to custody in Singhdarbar Ward Police Station. They had to stage fast-unto-death to grab the government’s attention. Finally, Speaker Suwash Nembang made it to the Police Station and promised to form a parliamentary committee to help solve their problems

MP Jagannath Khatiwada is heading the parliamentary committee. He says that the committee’s responsibilities, working procedures and authorities are not clearly mentioned. The Model Hospital initiated Fund and an NGO called Tewa have however done superb job in treating and taking care of patients.

Most of the victims I spoke to were full of praises for comedian duo Haribansha Acharya and Madan Krishna Shrestha. But, their angers were apparently towards the leaders who while visiting them in Hospital bed promised a lot but vanished once they were discharged from the bed. The follow-ups, the rehabilitation and the livelihood are their major concerns as many of the victims are breadwinners of their families with two or three dependents. Why is the government turning deaf ear to their just demands?