Two months into the ceasefire and the people of this gateway to the Maoist heartland are getting used to the suspension of violence.

Dang is cashing-in once more as the roadhead for Salyan, Rolpa, Rukum and Pyuthan to the north as the ceasefire allows more people to move in and out. There is more traffic as villagers who had fled to India and other parts of the country return home. Agricultural produce is beginning to find its way out as good winter rains yield a bumper harvest from the valleys to the north.

To be sure, there are still security checkpoints everywhere, a seven hour night curfew is still in force all over Dang. But on the whole, everyone is more relaxed, and local people say they haven't felt so hopeful in years.

"Thanks to the prospects of peace, people are feeling very much relieved now," says Narayan Prasad Sharma, who runs Naya Yugbodh newspaper. Local fairs and festivals are being held again, there is more bustle in the market in Ghorahi. And this year, twice the usual number of pilgrims visited the annual Pirasthapana Mela at Chaughera. There are only the burnt hulks of the police post and some charred remains of vehicles to show that there was once a war here. It was the massive Maoist attack on the army barracks in Ghorahi on 23 November, 2001 that marked the collapse of the last ceasefire, resulted in the declaration of an emergency, and plunged the country into an even-bloodier phase of the war.

The ensuing two years has been bloody for Dang. Locals found themselves caught in the middle between the Maoists and the security forces. While rebels killed dozens of "informers", security personnel did the same with those suspected of being Maoists.

According to the Human Rights Awareness Forum in Dang, 134 "Maoists" were killed by the state in 2002 while the rebels' dispensed their rough justice on 69 people. During this period both sides interrogated and tortured hundreds of people. "It will take time for scars of the past to heal. The people seem willing to give reconciliation a try," says Sharma.

This reconciliation is necessary for reconstruction and rehabilitation in one of the districts most-affected by the insurgency. Officials say they are waiting for money from Kathmandu so they can begin reconstruction. "The Maoists destroyed 36 out of the 39 VDC buildings in the district," says Chiranjibi Bhandari, Local Development Officer at the Dang DDC. "We now need Rs 20 million just to rebuild."

The biggest problem now is the absence of local elected representatives, and Bhandari is doing their work by organising meetings at different places in the district to assess the peoples' needs. "Their foremost concern is the deteriorating quality of the government-run primary schools," says Bhandari. After infrastructure, education suffered the brunt of the Maoist offensive in the past two years, with most schools closed, students abducted and teachers chased out.

According to the District Education Office here, over 85,000 students study in 276 primary schools in the district. But the quality of education is poor, and Bhandari sees no other alternative but to let local communities run schools themselves. "We feel the community needs to take the initiative to see schools are run properly," he told us. "An official at the district headquarters will not be able to monitor the quality of teaching and learning so involving the community is the best idea."

While people are expressing concerns about their access to basic services like health and education, their overriding concern at the moment is the restoration of peace and security. Fifty-three year old Khima Lamsal from Phursekhali, whose son was abducted and killed by Maoists last year, sums up the general sentiment of the people of Dang: "I hope the peace talks are successful and nobody has to face the fate of my son anymore."