Dhading, April 4

A settlement of quake-displaced people is reeling under acute shortage of food at Pauwa of Tripurasundari Rural Municipality-1, Dhading.

A total of 35 families from the Tamang community, displaced due to the 2015 earthquakes from Dhading’s Kapurgaun of Lapa, Neber and Bramtang have been living in makeshift tents here for the past five years.

Before the government imposed nationwide lockdown, people from the settlement used to go to nearby village to work in agriculture sector and construction projects as daily wage earners to feed their families. But, the lockdown has deprived the earthquake victims of their livelihood.

As the earthquake-triggered landslide struck their land and houses, these people had abandoned their homes.

“We have to work every day to make our ends meet”, said Ram Bahadur Tamang. Tamang complained that he had crushed some stones but could not sell them as construction work had come to a stop due to the lockdown. “I am facing financial crisis and not able to feed my family,” said Tamang.

“I do not own land to cultivate crops. I have to buy food to run my family. The day I stop working, I have a hard time kindling the hearth,” said Man Bahadur Tamang.

Tripurasundari Rural Municipality Chair Sambhu Thapa said that repeated meetings with stakeholders to rehabilitate the earthquake victims had produced no results. He even urged the National Reconstruction Authority to take initiative to rehabilitate the quake victims, but in vain.

Displaced people do not want to return to their homes for multiple reasons — their children have been enrolled in a nearby community school and they also have a primary health centre near their settlement.

More than 300 displaced families from Tipling, Sertung, Lapa, Rigaun and Jharlang areas have been living at headquarters Dhadingbesi, Sangkosh, Muralibhanjyang, Dhola and Salyantar, among other places of the district.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 05, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.