Rajbiraj, September 30

Flood victims in Saptari have accused various organisations of distributing substandard relief material.

The victims have also accused various non-profit organisations of being involved in financial irregularities during relief distribution.

Human settlements at Tilathi, Rampara Malahaniya, Koiladi and Barasain Sakarpural Village Development Committee and their adjoining areas were badly affected after the areas were flooded following heavy rainfall on July 23 and 24.

Social Awareness Development and Education Nepal, an NGO, had organised an interaction aiming to make the relief and rehabilitation of flood victims more effective to little effect as per the villagers.

During the programme, the locals questioned the performance of those organisations at the time of crisis.

Secretary of Social Awareness Development and Education Nepal, Niraj Kumar Jha, said irregularities were known to have been discovered during data collection as well as relief distribution.

Even the relief materials were found to be substandard while the VDC officials were unaware of the relief distribution. “Date expired drugs were distributed while the relief materials were distributed sans any criteria and without informing the concerned authority.

As the relief was distributed without informing the officials of District Natural Disaster Relief Committee, nobody knows about the exact record of relief distribution,” argued the victims.

Meanwhile, District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee Coordinator and Chief District Officer of Saptari, Bal Dev Gautam, said some of the non-profit organisations might have directly gone to those villages though they tried their best to manage relief distribution.

Chief District Officer Gautam said he was unaware of the substandard relief materials being distributed.

He, however, claimed that the drugs were legal and were distributed under the strict supervision of government officials from District Public Health Office .