Kavre, January 13

As winter is already taking its toll on the poor and impoverished, around 24,000 earthquake victims of Kavre are still awaiting the state-sponsored cash relief for winter clothes.

Despite the government’s pledge to make the relief amount of Rs 10,000 available to all the quake victims in the district by January 8, quake victims of three municipalities and eight VDCs in the district are yet to secure it.

Earlier, the government had committed itself to providing the relief to all tremor victims by the set deadline, even by using choppers.

As per the sources of Kavre District Administration Office, as many as 23,898 quake victim families in the district have been deprived of the relief amount. “Given the government’s delay in releasing the amount, the victims of Panauti, Banepa and Panchkhal municipalities along with Tukucha Nala, Mangaltar, Pokhari and Mechchhe villages have been deprived of the relief till date,” said Bhim Pokharel, accountant at DAO.

According to Pokharel, a fund of Rs 239 million is required for the relief. “Though we sought additional amount from the government a month ago, it has yet to be released. We received mere Rs 30 million for relief distribution yesterday,” he added.

Meanwhile, the quake victims have been hit hard due to the delay in relief distribution. “The cold is unbearable and we are yet to receive the relief meant for warm clothes though its mid-winter already. What will we do with the relief comes once the winter is over?” asked Bhojraj Panta, a tremor victim of Panchkhal, wondering if they had to resort to strikes and the likes to secure the relief they were promised.