SINDHUPALCHOWK: The quake victims of Sangachowk VDC, Sindhupalchowk are yet to receive relief amount of Rs 15,000 to procure corrugated zinc sheets to construct temporary shelters to be safe this monsoon.

The monsoon struck the village mid-June, but officials of Sangachowk VDC are still struggling to distribute cash relief to villagers.

Currently, the villagers are living inside temporary shelters made from rusted zinc sheets riddled with holes and timber salvaged from their damaged houses. They kept some zinc sheets and timber to shelter their cattle and poultry after distribution of relief amount was delayed.

Shyam Khadka, 55, of Pokhre said,”The rain water trickles through the zinc sheets. The families of my three sons are housed under one small temporary shelter. Even if the government distributes relief money it will not be sufficient to procure zinc sheets to construct temporary shelters that will accommodate the families of my three sons.”

Basanta Prasad Ghimire, secretary, Sangachowk VDC said cash relief had not been distributed as the registered households claiming cash relief outnumbered the actual damaged households.

“Over 28,000 households have registered for cash relief, whereas, the District Administration Office has allocated cash relief for only 22,000 households on the basis of existing documented records before the earthquake of April 25,” he said.

The government had announced immediate cash relief of Rs 15,000 for one damaged house. The joint families who have not legally divided properties are not eligible for immediate cash relief even if they had been staying in separate houses.

“The joint families who lost more than one house registered fore cash relief under names of different members of the same family,” Ghimire said, stressing that families who had lost more than one house are not satisfied with government policy.

He warned that a monitoring team comprising ward citizens’ forum would be deployed to find such joint families who had registered more than once for the same house before issuing the ID card to claim immediate cash relief and Rs 200,000 to further build a permanent house.

The government released Rs 5.53 billion to the local authorities for immediate relief countrywide in May.

According to District Disaster Relief Committee, the death toll was 3,656 in Sindhupalchowk. About 90 per cent of houses in the district were razed to the ground.