Ramechhap, February 22

Timber management committee of Ramechhap has decided to provide timber at subsidised rate to earthquake victims who have completed the process of receiving the second instalment of the housing grant.

A meeting of the committee, held under the chairmanship of Chief District Officer Dilip Prasad Lamichhane today, decided to grant timber to 111 quake victims at subsidised rate in the first phase. Each of the victim families will receive 25 cubic feet of timber.

“We will provide timber to quake victims on the basis of registration number of their applications,” said the CDO, adding that those who haven’t started building houses even after receiving the grant won’t get timber.

The quake victims will have to pay Rs 883 for each cubic feet of timber. “We will provide the timber as per the application registration number,” said District Forest Officer Ram Bichari Thakur of Udayapur.

According to Thakur, the timber  was collected from various community forests in the district. “As the government didn’t provide us fund to buy timber, we borrowed some amount from the municipality and bought the timber,” he said.