English

Ward chair gives his remuneration to locals, stealing their hearts

Sher Bahadur Singh/Bhimduttanagar, July 21 (RSS): One hundred five years old Jhusi Devi Bista of Bhimduttanagar walked up to the local ward office on Saturday morning with the help of her granddaughter.
Despite fragile health at this age she hobbled to the ward office when she knew of the announcement of ward chair Aasef Kunwar (Bhuntu) that he was distributing the remunerations he received so far as the local representative to the local senior citizens (completing 70 years), visually impaired and persons with physical disabilities.
Political leaders and local representatives are often accused of forgetting the promises they made before the people during elections after securing wins, but the case of Bhimdutta Municipality-1 ward chair is different. He has not forgotten his words he gave to the locals during the election campaign. In his own words, “I had promised not to take any sorts of government facilities till the five year (full term of local representatives) if I got elected to the post.”
Kunwar was elected on the post through the Nepali Congress ticket.
On the occasion, 163 people received Rs 1,500 each. The ward chair promised to reach doorsteps of those being unable to visit the ward office with the assistance amount.
He publicly announced that he was on the post to serve the people not to entertain the government facilities. In his personal views, it does not suit the local representative to pocket remunerations for serving the people. The monthly payment for a ward chair Rs 22,000 and his accumulation of so far is 2,620,000 which he all distributed to the people.
The move of the ward chair has brought smiles to the faces of senior citizens who gave blessings to their representatives on the occasion.
Eighty-six-year-old Lal Bahadur Kunwar shared that it is the first time he saw any local representative distributing his pay to others in his life. As he said, the ward chair has captured the hearts of locals.
The centenarian mother Bista poured out her blessings to the ward chair on the occasion.
Likewise, 77-year-old Ram Bahadur Bista exchanged words of happiness for getting the person like Kunwar as the ward chair. The scene of some of senior faces bursting into tears giving a hug to the ward chair while receiving the amount made the mass emotional.