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Kathmandu. Many people find it hard to believe that a building can be built with liquor control money. In many places, after collecting two to four thousand by the committee for alcohol control, even those who drink regularly will have to flee. Those who are fined for the second time are very few, but in present-day Surma rural municipality-10 in Daulichaur gavis of Savik of Bajhang, those who pay the fine for drinking alcohol are not affected much. No matter how much the fine was paid, consumption and selling did not decrease.
In Bajhang district, Daulichaur village was the most disturbed. Nepal Police also kept up to 45 security personnel. Alcohol and violence, which became a challenge in the district, became normal only after a few years. 2067 A control committee was formed after there was too much alcohol in Daulichaur. The committee imposed heavy fines for selling and consuming alcohol. Security personnel were given the responsibility of holding the flag. Gorakh Bahadur Bohra became the chairman of the committee.
During his tenure, fines for alcohol were Rs. 32 lakh was collected. From 2067 to 2074, the Alcohol Control Committee collected the money collected in Daulichaur and handed it over to Daulichaur Secondary School. He says, ‘We gave 25 percent of that, i.e. eight lakhs, to the police for arresting Jandia. We built a concrete building for the school with the remaining amount collected.’
According to him, Daulichaur was considered to be the storehouse of liquor in Sayam at that time. “We formed a liquor control committee when the alcohol that was not available elsewhere in the district started coming to Daulichaur,” he says. Later, we made mandatory fine rules.’ Bohra remembers that along with alcohol, carem, gucci players were also arrested and fined.
He said that after paying a fine of Rs.25,000 to those who sell alcohol, Rs.10,000 to those who consume it, Rs.10,000 to those who play carom boards, and Rs.1500 to those who play Gucci, he collected Rs.32 lakh in seven years and built a concrete building for the school. From the liquor control fine, he built a two-story concrete building in the school with a temple and chautara of Rs.
Kalak Bohra, the then president of Daulichaur Mavika School Management Committee, also says that the building was built with the money of liquor control. “The school building was not only built with the same amount, but a lot of work was done because such a large amount was collected,” he says. He said that Rs 70 lakh was collected from Daulichaur in six to seven years to build other buildings of the school. “Now the buildings have not been built,” he said, “at that time we collected resources from many places and conducted classes from 6th to 12th class.”
He said that the water supply, toilets, fencing etc. in the school were done before the local government came. Now Daulichore is very quiet compared to earlier. Chakraprasad Joshi, Acting Chief Administrative Officer of Surma Rural Municipality, said, ‘I came after the formation of the first local government. It used to sound very turbulent. There were also murders due to alcohol. It was heard that domestic violence happened in every house. Now I have not heard of such incidents.’
According to him, now many people in Surma are busy with their work. It seems like it will be difficult to find a leisurely person in Surma. You can find people who are engaged in their own work day and night,” he said. He said that there are very few people who drink alcohol in Surma Rural Municipality. He said that the Liquor Control Committee in Daulichaur is now inactive.