DHADING, April 27

Last Saturday’s earthquake victim Bal Bahadur Tamang of Sertung in Dhading made an all out effort to seek relief at Dhadingbeshi-based DAO today, but in vain.

Tamang lamented that he was living in the open with seven family members. “The quake rendered my family homeless and buried our grains,” Tamang complained. He expressed inability to feed to his children.

Likewise, Ram Prasad Rijal of Nilkanth Municipality too had to return empty-handed after DAO failed to provide him relief material. “How long should we wait for government relief?” Rijal wondered.

The plight of majority of earthquake victims is no different in the district. For want of food items, tremor victims are compelled to stay hungry in the district.

District Agriculture Development Office has led the work to collect relief materials in collaboration with Federation of non-government organisations Dhading chapter and FNCCI Dhading chapter, among others in the district.

According to CDO Basudev Ghimire, Federation of non-government organisations, Dhading FNCCI and DAO will collect relief materials, which will be compensated by the government later. CDO Ghimire pledged that government relief materials would be provided to the victims shortly.

According to Ghimire, three choppers to ferry the injured will be dispatched to take relief materials to the affected villages. As many as 22 VDCs, including Ri, Jharlang, Lapa and Darkha have been most affected by the quake.

Till today, 370 people have been killed, while more than 300 have been injured in the district. Thirty-eight persons who were critically injured were airlifted to the Capital. The remaining injured are being treated at various health facilities in the district.

Of the 78,000 households, 50,000 have been completely destroyed, while 23,000 partially damaged are not safe to live in.