The taskforce responsible for rehabilitating freed-haliyas has not found even a single haliya in any of the eight villages reported in a government survey conducted earlier. [break]
The taskforce had recently visited Dhime, Paik, Rokayagaun, Nayakbada, Dadagaun, Archhani, Majkot and Ramidada villages of Jajarkot to verify the data collected by the government.
According to the statistics prepared by the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, 400 freed-haliyas live in eight districts of Jajarkot. "But, we did not find even a single freed-haliya," said Dipendra Sharma, secretary of Federation of Nepalese Journalist (FNJ), Jajarkot chapter, who was a member of the verification team.
Chief District Officer (CDO) of Jajarkot Govinda Prasad Rijal says that the forms that are said to be filled out by freed-haliyas are full of false information. "The people whose names and addresses appear in the forms as freed-haliyas do not exist," Rijal said.
According to Sharma, some freed-haliyas are said to belong to Parki Joshi caste. "However, people belonging to this caste do not exist anywhere in Jajarkot," he said.
The government had allocated budget for conducting several livelihood training programs for freed-haliyas. With no freed-haliya spotted by the verification team, the budget is likely to be frozen. Four years ago, the government had declared emancipation of haliyas from their owners.
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