No respite for Rautahat flood victims from govt

Rautahat, August 17

After moving from pillar to post for relief the entire day, Kanti Paswan returns to her makeshift home at night, with no sign of any relief coming her way.

A resident of Piparabhagawanpur Ward No 1, she has been taking refuge on the roadside along the Gaur-Chandrapur stretch under a flimsy tent with her family for the past six days.

This is just a case in point. In fact, her suffering represents the plight of most flood victims in Rautahat, who have been languishing in the open ever since floods drove them out of their homes. With their houses destroyed by floods, they have now become homeless.

Around 300,000 people from over 30,000 flood-displaced households are living in the open in the district now. They have nothing to eat and feed their family.

Paswan has to borrow money from a local landlord for food. “So far I have been providing food to my family by borrowing money from others,” she said. She was frustrated with the delay in arrival of government relief.

“With my son, I walked all the way to Gaur in the hope of getting relief but to no avail. We line up the entire day but we have to return empty-handed at the end of the day,” lamented another flood victim Rajani Devi Sahani of Gaur Municipality.

Khaheru Sah of Laxmipur Belbichhawa complained that only half the number of victims were given relief by the local administration till now. “They came and distributed one kg beaten rice, one packet of biscuits and one bottle of water,” he said. “Though a total of 587 households were affected by the floods here, the administration provided relief only to half of them.”

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