GOKUL GHORSAINE

Deputy Minister of Physical Planning and Works, Kalawati Devi Paswan, has solved a big problem for herself. Ten months after being appointed as a minister, Paswan has built a cement house for herself in her village in Bara. The 16-room, two-story house was built at a cost of Rs 1.5 million. An unknown group had torched her house, reducing it to ashes, immediately after she was elected in the Constituent Assembly and Paswan had been living in a thatched hut ever since.

"My lifelong ambition is fulfilled," Paswan said. "I have built the house with the support of the party and the people." Paswan explained that the government contributed Rs 600,000 and her party, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, chipped in Rs 300,000 to build the house. "I had also saved some money from my salary and allowances," she said.

Paswan, who comes from the Dalit and landless community, had lived in a thatched hut for a long time. "It does not suit a minister to live in a hut. I used to work as a wage labourer before. Now that I have built a house, all my worries are gone," she says.

The locals are also happy that the minister has built her house in the village. Former VDC chairman Ramananda Chaurasiya said, "If other ministers too built their houses in their villages it would contribute a lot to village development."

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