Each member of joint families wishes to build separate house

Charikot, March 13

The government has started distributing Rs 50,000 as the first installment for reconstruction of houses ravaged by last year’s April and May earthquake, after a series of disputes, in Charikot of Dolakha, from today.

Only a single victim received the amount on the first day today.

Distribution was halted throughout the day today after a dispute arose between locals and local party leaders.

A team of Reconstruction Authority, led by the authority’s chief Sushil Gyawali, was scheduled to distribute the amount to 10 households each of Lamidanda-6 and Laduk-8 of the district today.

As the concerned authority was preparing to distribute the amount as per the data collected by the department of statistics, locals folks disrupted the programme demanding that the amount be distributed on the basis of victim identity cards.

Meanwhile, UCPN-Maoist youth leader Bishal Khadka warned that the programme would be stopped through stringent protests if the authority officials bypassed political leaders.

Following the dispute, discussion among district leaders, locals and officials of the reconstruction authority was held until 6:00pm today.

The programme could finally begin at 6:00pm after they reached understanding on not excluding any genuine earthquake victim and forging consensus in case of any dispute before distribution of the amount.

As per Gyawali, they signed an agreement to distribute the first installment of Rs 50,000 to Jagat Bahadur Khatri, 71, of Laduk-8, Singati, only in the evening.

“We were preparing to distribute the amount to as many as 20 households as part of the first installment, but it was halted after locals demanded that the amount be distributed on the basis of victim identity cards,” he said.

According to sources, the dispute arose after each member of the joint families wished to build separate houses.