Koshi barrage victims on relay hunger strike for 23 days   

Biratnagar, Sept 8 .  The relay hunger strike launched by the victims of Koshi barrage from Sunsari, Saptari and Udaypur districts has reached 23 days today. They are on the strike, demanding the compensation of their lands taken for the construction of the Koshi barrage, but none of the bodies concerned has paid attention to it.

They have been demanding the implementation of the agreement, as per which, they would be compensated for the lands and crops. Similarly, as they argued, construction of roads and schools at their villages, irrigation facility and employments to educated jobless people of victim families were imperative for them.

Currently, the third-generation of the people who directly lost their property for the construction of mega project is on the relay strike as two previous generations were deprived of their rights. Even after the passage of 65 years the Indian government had made agreement to provide the compensation, they are provided nothing but suffering.

Chairperson of Koshi river encroachment inundation victim struggle committee, Mahidev Prasad Chaudhary, said that they would launch stern agitation to take their relay hunger strike to its logical conclusion as no bodies concerned had expressed commitment to fulfill their demands.

He said that around 63,000 bighas of land in three districts were encroached and inundated.  An agreement was reached between the then King Mahendra and the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru regarding the issue of compensation.