The government has started building roads with its Basket Fund for Maoist-affected areas. But it will take more than highways to make a difference to the lives of the long-suffering people of Rolpa and Rukum.

In the heart of Maoist country, the chairman of the District Development Committee (DDC) Khem Man Khadka sees a silver lining in the insurgency. It is because of the war that his district is finally getting a road.

The Salyan-Musikot mountain highway linking remote Rukum's district headquarters with Salyan to the south is under construction by the Royal Nepal Army. On a clear day, the outline of the road is already visible in the distance from here, snaking up the mountains. Beginning from Salyan, the 80 km road has already passed Sitapati, Kharibot, Jhulkhet and will reach Musikot by next year-unless the government runs out of money.

Rukum has always been famous for its export of vegetable seeds and other farm produce, and people like Khadka hope that the road will provide access to markets, bring income to the peasants here, and boost the local economy.

The road is happening as a direct result of the Maoist insurgency, part of the government's effort to accelerate development in this long-neglected area. Ever since the Maoist "peoples'war" began here five years ago, development work in the mid-western hinterland has slackened because demoralised local village representatives were caught in the crossfire between the government and the Maoists. They were unable to mobilise local resources for community development.
Now, in Kathmandu and in the mid-western districts, planners and policy makers are hopeful that the government's Basket Fund which pools central government budget with local resources, will revive development activities in Rukum, Rolpa, Sallyan, Jajarkot, and Kalikot. Says Khadka: "The Maoist-affected areas do warrant special attention and development packages. But not at the cost of disabling and weakening local governments." While Khadka and his colleagues welcome the idea of a Basket Fund, they are critical of the government's decision to fund part of the project with resources allocated to local development, especially the Rs500,000 already allotted to each Village Development Committee (VDC). "This means individual VDCs will have less money for their programmes," says Khadka. So far the District Basket Fund Coordination Committee, made up of representatives from various political parties and the DDC chairman, has allocated 40 lakhs for the Salyan-Musikot highway. The rest of the money came from the Roads Department. Other motorable roads being built with money from the Basket Fund include: Musikot-Burtibang, Devsthal Kankadan-Chaurjhari and Charmare-Budagaun Chaujhari. The Fund also provides for supply of chemical fertiliser, improving the district hospital and looking at ways to boost agriculture.

But there is a problem of getting the money where it is needed because of Maoist activities. Sita Oli is a Nepali Congress supporter and VDC chairperson of Khara in Rukum who has been living in the district headquarters for the past four years. "I know it is my duty to stay in the village. But the environment is not safe. We have an overseer who monitors the work."

Back in Kathmandu, National Planning Commission (NPC) member Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokharel sits at his desk in Singha Darbar and listens as we narrate the woes of local officials like Khadka and Oli in Musikot. He acknowledges the shortcomings of the Basket Fund, and says there is a need for better guidelines. "This is an area where local funds have either been frozen in the absence of local representatives, or their use dictated by Maoists, where the village councils haven't met, and local representatives remain in the district headquarters owing to Maoist fears." says Pokharel. With problems of access to Maoist affected areas, the NPC feels it is better not to disperse the money to the grassroots, but concentrate on visible and tangible programs like roads, health, agriculture.

Currently 400 locals are employed on the Salyan-Musikot road. The army also treats locals at its health clinic and carries out small drinking water projects which have been welcomed by locals. "It has turned out that they serve two purposes. They carry out construction work. But they are also a deterrence to Maoists, and have helped maintain the government's presence." The army is looking at the highway as a test-case for the government's "Defence and Development" project for another Maoist-affected district, Gorkha. The project seeks to involve the police, the army and aid organisations for integrated rural development programmes that have a quick and tangible effect on local standards of living.

While Maoists tolerate agriculture, health, and water technicians to go about their businesses in village areas, they are critical of the roads being built by the army in Rolpa and Rukum. We ran into a Comrade Ajay on the trail to Musikot, and he was clearly displeased: "The roads are not being built with the people in mind. It will make it easier for the government to infiltrate our stronghold." But for the moment it is not in the Maoists' strategic interest to take on the army, so they are tolerating the construction of the Libang-Madichaur highway in Rolpa and the Salyan-Musikot road in Rukum-knowing fully well that they can easily sabotage the road if they want to. But they have sent back a team of surveyors who had been dispatched to map out another road from a farming valley.

The Maoists themselves have their own small development projects-building small bridges, repairing community buildings and maintaining village trails. Villagers volunteer for the construction work. "I know the projects we carry out are small. But the work is carried out by the people themselves, and it teaches self-reliance," says Comrade Ajay.

How the Maoists, whose parallel governments are a stark reality outside of the district headquarters in these districts, will react to Basket Fund projects remain to be seen. In the past, the Maoists have made it clear that they are opposed to foreign-funded development programmes, arguing that they "undermine the people's war and encourage economic indiscipline, corruption and parasitic tendencies". Most non-governmental organizations have left Rolpa and Rukum. In 1997, the Lutheran World Federation pulled out from Rolpa after completing its five-year Rolpa Community Development Project which included literacy, infrastructure building, saving credit schemes, drinking water programmes.

"There was never any direct threat from anyone. But we were in an odd position, sandwiched between the Maoists and the police, and we left because we did not want to jeopardise the staff," says Shashi Rijal of LWF, which has now moved further west to Accham, Doti and Kalikot. Last year, Maoists in Madhichaur, Rolpa disbanded a 22-member women's savings credit group and warned off Women Development officials. Recalls Nausara Pun: "We were having a meeting when some cadres came up and took the papers of the group and the bags of the women workers. We haven't met since."

That hasn't kept aid organisations from trying. The UNDP-supported Participatory District Development Project (PDDP) has initiated programmes in several Maoist affected districts in mid-western Nepal this year. In Rukum and Jajarkot it has established district level programmes, and is now moving into outlying villages. "We've selected five VDCs to run programmes depending on their needs. These VDCs have agreed to contribute a lakh each as matching funds while the DDC will contribute one lakh," says Arjun Kumar Ale, PDDP representative in Rukum.

At a meeting recently organised by PDDP, 35 of the 43 VDC secretaries from Rukum came to Musikot to take part in an orientation. "They were very positive about development programmes. Judging from the response, I don't think we'll have a problem in the villages. But it's too soon to say. We have yet to go in."
Khadka and his DDC team, largely Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) supporters, admit that visits into the interior have decreased following increased Maoist activities. But Khadka has been touring 30 of the 43 VDCs as a part of the UML's 'Gaun Jaun, Janta Jagau' ("Go to the village, wake up the people"). He says: "There is plenty of propaganda, but the Maoist don't control the whole district. It hasn't kept us from going to the villages."