HETAUDA, July 29

Makawanpur Chief District Officer and District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee Coordinator Ram Prasad Thapaliya warned earthquake victims to clear the land occupied in the buffer zone and move their temporary shelters to other safe places.

Earlier, Raksirang folks had started to rehabilitate themselves at Beldanda Kabuliyati forest after they were terrorised by continuous land slips in their locality with the onset of monsoon in the aftermath of the earthquake.

“If anybody is found breaching the administration rules, they will face the music. Their names will also be removed from the list of earthquake victims,” said CDO Thapaliya.

The victims had started to move to Manahari from Sunday with the initiative of Earthquake Victims Settlement Transfer Initiation Committee, Raksirang.

But Nepal Police personnel and Armed Police Force personnel had chased the victims away forcing them to clear the land.

“As the area is a buffer-zone, human settlement must be removed from the location,” said CDO Thapaliya. Hence, they should be taken to other safer locations of Raksirang for temporary settlement, he said.

But the settlement committee has demanded that the victims be rehabilitated in Manahari area for four months as the village was a landslide prone zone.

Deepak Chepang, one of the victims, said, “As we have already moved to Manahari from Raksirang, it is not practical to move to our village at a time when landslide has hit the area.”

He demanded at least four months settlement permit in Manahari at this time of crisis.