Even those who are not quake victims have received fund for reconstruction of houses because of pressure from political parties

Ramechhap, April 14

The victims of the deadly earthquake of last year have complained that the grant distribution process for reconstruction of sheds has been partial in Ramechhap.

They have started complaining that District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee has agreed to distribute more grants to bogus victims for construction of sheds bypassing the real victims in the district.

Earlier, the government had announced distribution of Rs 25,000 to each victim’s family for the construction of as many as 1,794 sheds in the district.

There must be at least three animals and the shed must have been destroyed in the disaster for a family to obtain the aid. But the committee has permitted those people who do not meet the criteria as they were able to influence the authority.

District Agriculture Development Office had called for applications but without field visit and report, owing to manpower and resource crunch. “This grant distribution process is partial,” said Shyam Lal Magar of Salu.

Journalist Badri Nayaghare also commented that the real victims were deprived of the grants due to flawed distribution.

Acting chief of the office Santosh Chaudhary said that as it was impossible to gather detailed information due to manpower crunch, they had no option but to approve the data provided by the all party mechanism.