Siraha/Rautahat, January 5:

The continuing cold wave is hitting the poor and senior citizens of the terai the hardest.

The effects of cold wave are more severe in Rautahat, Bara, Siraha, Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi and Kanchanpur districts. Ram Dev Kamati, 53, of Hanumannagar in Siraha died on Monday. Kamati was miserably poor. All he had was five dhurs of land and a hut.

“Kamati was suffering from asthma. The doctor attending to him had advised him to eat nutritious food and wear warm clothes. But we could neither afford nutritious food nor warm clothes,” Kamati’s widow Sudhiya said.

Adhniya Devi Paswan of Saraswar-8, who died of cold wave recently, was equally poor, locals said. “As her husband died four years ago, there was nobody to look after Adhniya,” a local Bhogendra Yadav said.

Khena Sahani of Gadhi VDC in Rautahat also died of cold wave because he, too, had no warm clothes to fight off the cold. Khena’s son Thaga Sahani said, “We do not have warm clothes. We have to light fires to stave off the cold.”

“My - Gonaur Ram of Inarwa VDC in Rutahat - had fallen ill due to cold. He died while he was being taken to a hospital on last Sunday,” Gonaur’s son Samat said, adding, “We are hard put to earn our bread. How can we manage warm clothes?.” Pointing out that elderly people suffering from asthma are dying as they are unable to endure cold, chief of Siraha District Hospital Dr Raj Kumar Chaudhari said asthma patients must take nutritious food and wear warm clothes.

Mostly, elderly people from poor families are dying of cold wave, the Siraha CDO, Shashishekhar Shrestha, said. Chief of the Rautahat district hospital Dr Braja Kishor Thakur said people from backward communities and asthma patients are succumbing to the cold wave. Rautahat CDO Madhav Prasad Ojha said, “As the government has not issued directives, the DAO has not been able to do anything for the victims.”

Toll rises to 33

Rautahat: Cold wave has claimed 33 lives in the past week across the country. Three more persons, including a new-born baby, died in Rautahat on Thursday evening. The toll in Rautahat reached 13 this week. In Bara, cold spell claimed 60-year-old Pushpa Raj Pandey of Kalaiya 7. Six people have died due to cold in Bara over the week. An aged person died at Devithan temple in Itahari-2 on Friday. Sub-inspector Sanjib Katuwal said a person aged around 65 years died of cold. His body was sent to the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences. — HNS