The Mayor of 'Gurkha' Town
Dharan City, where once the British army recruited its famously fearsome Nepalese soldiers, had fallen into a state of despondency. Now Harka Raj Rai, a political outsider elected in May 2022, is promising to make the town spick and span once again.
The Mayor of 'Gurkha Town' is working to restore the Nepalese city to its former glory and tackle years of corruption which have led to British buildings falling into disrepair. Harka Raj Rai was elected in May 2022 as a populist insurgent pledging to clean up Dharan City and restore basic amenities like water after years of neglect. “Growing up, I saw how Dharan changed into a beautiful city. It is still famously known as the eastern city of Gurkhas,” he said. “The infrastructure built by the British stands as iconic and still-functioning hospital buildings. But over the years, it has become a hotbed of corruption."
Dharan, in eastern Nepal, is known locally as Gurkha Town and is home to thousands of former British army soldiers. It remains the base for the first round of army recruitment for the eastern Nepalese at the old Ghopa Camp. Before the cantonment closed in 1989, Ghopa Camp was headquarters for the British Army. The old offices, married quarters, settlement training centres, messes, and canteens stand frozen in time, many abandoned and decaying. On a Saturday morning earlier this year, hundreds of volunteers could be found planting fruit saplings on a hill outside the city. Some were weeding, others digging holes and weaving bamboo fences to protect the plants. An eightyear-old brought a sapling to plant.
They were being directed by Mr Rai, dressed in filthy clothes and holding a megaphone to instruct volunteers to bring in more saplings for planting. He took out his traditional khukuri, the curved knife used by Gurkha soldiers, from the wooden sheath wrapped around his waist and began to clear the bushes himself. Part of the mayor's mission is also to solve two decades of water crisis – a promise he made to voters before the election. His assent to power as a political novice broke Nepal’s strong party system and earned the opprobrium of the traditional politicians.
Until he turned to politics, he lived as a migrant worker in Iraq and Afghanistan. The son of an ex-Gurkha, he recalled yearly visits home to Nepal and the acute water shortage the city was suffering. “I still don’t consider myself a politician because I never imagined running an election,” he said. “I tried to raise my voice against the city’s water woes, corruption and health system, but the past administrators turned deaf ears.”
He claims his efforts have often led to his being manhandled. “Security personnel would neither let me go inside government offices nor talk to government officials,” he said. Local government has no authority over the former army camp which hosts the area’s main hospital. Built by the British, the buildings are crumbling, the quality of health care failing. But the mayor is lobbying the central government to let the city run the hospital. He has promised to bring back its past glory by curbing decades of corruption, renovating the iconic old buildings, installing the latest health technology, and improving health services.
He wants to pay for it by setting up a strict tax collection system. Other plans include improving education, resettling illegal squatters from the watershed to help the water supply and freeing up public land for tree plantation. With regard to his main promise, Harka and his army of 15,000 volunteers have been making headway. On the night of 12 June 2023, they managed to pipe water from the Kokaha River, 45 km away, all without spending any government budget. Birkha Bahadur Gurung, a 70-year-old ex-British Gurkha, was one of those who voted for the 41-year-old, one of the 39% of voters who gave him victory. “Mayor Harka is free from political party obligations,” he said.
Nanda Kumari, another resident, said, “We used to queue for as long as three days for a meagre three buckets of water. Now we have running water directly from the Kokaha.” But not everyone is so positive. Political opponents accuse him of misusing donations and being a political novice. “The mayor is not transparent about the income and expenditures of huge donations collected from hundreds of people,” said the Chair of Ward Number 4, Bibek Rai.
Rai also attacked his signature achievement, “The Kokaha River can only supply water during the monsoon season. When winter hits, the mayor’s fame will only be a 15-minute affair.” Still, the mayor remains bullish. “I have a big challenge to find a permanent solution for the city’s water crisis,” he said. “Dharan cannot do it alone, so I’ve been appealing to the central government. Despite our differences, we have all taken an oath to serve our voters. We must deliver at any cost.”
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