Police on Wednesday baton-charged demonstrators in Saptari to disperse the crowd to resume traffic on the East-West highway.

Locals from the Mahuli River area took to the streets on Wednesday protesting against the local government’s apathy to the yearly flooding in the area.

The agitated locals had been staging protests on the Mahuli river bridge, disrupting the traffic along the Portaha section of the East-West highway on Wednesday.

Police baton-charged protestors and fired a round of bullets into the air to disperse the crowd as security personnel and demonstrators engaged in an altercation during the former’s attempt to clear the road, said Superintendent of Police Narendra Kumar Karki.

Traffic has now resumed on the highway, Karki added.

Every monsoon, the areas around the Mahuli River experience floods as the river breaks the barricades and enters the homes of the locals. The locals accuse the government of not making any efforts to prevent disasters even as water levels in the river have started to rise.