Dhangadi, June 9

Though four days have passed since a massive windstorm left a trail of destruction in Kailali, uncertainty over distribution of relief to hapless victims continues.

How much relief amount to give and which government agency will be responsible for relief distribution are questions that still need to be hammered out. This is apparently because provincial and local governments differ over the issue of coordinating relief distribution.

The dust storm hit Kailali’s Dhangadi Sub-metropolitan City and Kailari Rural Municipality the hardest. However, the exact details of the damage are yet to be collected.

Dhangadi sub-metropolis distributed 40 tents to the victims of Ward No 1 yesterday. Likewise, Province Internal Affairs and Law Minister Prakash Shah distributed 15 and eight tents at Ward No 8 and 5 respectively.

Dhangadi Mayor Nrip Bahadur Odd admitted that they had failed to coordinate with the province government for relief distribution.

District Disaster Management Committee had decided that the local level would distribute relief on the basis of the details of the damage. The decision, however, is yet to be implemented.

The municipality’s executive met today and formed a three-member committee led by Prem BK. The committee has been assigned the duty of collecting details of the damage and providing relief. “Relief will be distributed on the basis of the details collected by the committee,” said Mayor Odd.

According to Odd, they have started distributing immediate relief such as tents, food items and other items.

Meanwhile, storm victims have started building shelters on their own. Some have started purchasing zinc sheets while others are collecting old, blown away zinc sheets.