Khimti shows the way

DINESH KARKI
KHIMTI, Dolakha, March 26: Toyanath Paudel of Tilpong, Ramechhap, has come to Khimti Project area for the treatment of his 16-year-old son Lekhnath who is suffering from fever. He was taken to the only clinic in the after two hours walk.

The clinic is funded and run by Himal Power Limited, one of the major shareholders of the Khimti Hydro Electric Project as part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The clinic was started in the year 2000 and it caters to patients of 10 to 12 VDCs of both Dolakha and Ramechhap districts. According to Health Assistant Devendra Prasad Shah, in-charge of the clinic, 40-45 patients visit the clinic daily.

The clinic provides general clinical facilities, maternal and child health care services and emergency services at an affordable price to the villagers. According to HPL, annually 14,000 patients get treatment from the clinic and 80 percent of them include local and non-project related people.

Khimti Project School, which was initially started with an aim to educate the children of the workers and the employees associated with the KHEP, has also become the centre of attraction for villagers who want to give quality education to their children, says Balkrishna Sharma, Principle of Khimti Project School.

According to Sharma, the school with 479 total students from nursery to Grade 10 at present has achieved outstanding result in SLC exams for the last two years. The school with yearly expenses of Rs 6.8 million is financially sustained with 67.64 percent investment from the HPL and remaining from the revenue generated by the school.

In an another example of CSR, the company handed over the Jhankre Rural Electrification and Development Projects (JREDP and JREDPII) to Khimti Rural Electric Cooperative Limited (KREC).

According to the Chairperson of KREC Narayan Dhoj Khadka, KREC will fix a tariff in line with the tariff of NEA. NEA is charging Rs 80 for the users or households who consume less than 20 units of electricity.

According to him, the per unit charge for agriculture based industry will be Rs 4 and the furniture industry will be Rs 5. the KREC has 2,800 members and it has hoped to provide electricity to 4,000 more households around the project area.

Published on 2010-03-26 22:29:28