Tapli rural municipality in the western hilly area of Udayapur district is without any modern communication facilities.
Out of the eight local levels including four municipalities and four rural municipalities in the district, Tapli is the only local level deprived of this facility.
"All the local levels in the district except Tapli have electricity, telephone and mobile telephone facilities. It is only the people in Tapli who are deprived of these services," complained Bamendra Tamang of Tapli-4.
The telecom company, Ncell, installed mobile phone transmission tower on the top of the Iname hill in Tapli two years back. This is only the communication facility available for the people of Tapli. But the Ncell service coverage is limited to areas in the vicinity of the tower only.
"The state-owned Nepal Telecom has not bothered to expand its services by set up its tower and mobile phone facility in Tapli rural municipality. People have to walk for two hours and climb up the Iname hill even to make a phone call," Jayandra Thapa, a local, explained the situation.
The people of Tapli have to travel to Katari for all types of communication services.
"There is no phone service in our village. One has to walk for four hours to Katari if one wanted to make a phone call to his/her relatives living in the district or outside the district," Kumari Khadka of Rupatar lamented.
Tapli rural municipality's officer Lila Shrestha said that they are compelled to go to Katari for official correspondence purpose as well.
