GORKHA/BHAKTAPUR, April 28

While earthquakes continue to terrorise people across the country, the dearth of daily essentials in markets has worsened the situation.

People living in bazaar areas may have managed foodstuffs, but rural folks in far-flung areas are staying hungry owing to the government's failure to send relief materials.

Dozens of aftershocks have jolted the country after a tremor measuring 7.6 Ricther struck the nation last Saturday. Families displaced by the massive earthquake are waiting for relief materials in rural parts of Lamjung, the neighbouring district of Gorkha, which was the epicentre of the devastating tremor.

Basudev Pant, a local, from Bhotewadar complained that earthquake had buried their grain crops; and foodstuffs in the local shops had been used up. “We are going to starve for want of government relief materials,” Pant added.

Likewise, another tremor victim Dipak Tamang from Ilampokhari asked the government to dispatch relief materials at the earliest. “While the quake is unleashing terror, we dread death for want of food,” Tamang said.

Bichaud, Ilampokhari, Gauda, Bhalayakharka, Tarkughat and Bhotewadar are the most affected areas in Lamjung. Four people were killed in the dreadful calamity in the district. Despite minimum human casualty, over 700 homes were destroyed. Displaced people and other locals have been living in open meadows and spaces.

Lamjung CDO Sarba Kumar Timilsina said relief materials would be provided as soon as possible. “Though human casualty is low, damage to physical structures is massive,” Timilsina said, adding, “Once the details of the damage are collected, we shall start delivering relief materials.”

Meanwhile, though relief materials and food stuff have reached the quake-hit areas of Gorkha, they are yet to be distributed. As many as 223 persons lost their lives in Gorkha, while more than 200 have been injured in the disaster. Hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed.

CDO Uddavraj Timilsina said 90 per cent of homes were damaged in the mountainous areas and 40 per cent homes were destroyed in the district headquarters.

Timilsina added that three choppers had delivered tents, noodles, blankets, biscuits and beaten-rice, among other items, to the victims. Likewise, two trucks of pulses, rice, cooking oil, and salt have been brought to the district.

Timilsina said details of the damage was being collected.“We shall begin distributing relief materials in a day or two” he added. According to him, choppers are airlifting the injured from rural areas to Kathmandu, Pokhara and district headquarters.

In Bhaktapur, where more than 90 per cent of old houses collapsed, nothing has been done apart from providing tents to some homeless people. Nepal Red Cross Society Bhaktapur has distributed around 1,000 tents to the victims of Bhaktapur, Changunarayan, Mahamanjushree and Suryabinayak municipalities. Some people have managed tents and other commodities on their own.

Hari Sharan Basnet, a local from Sipadol lamented that his family had been living in the open after his house perished in the quake. “Ever since the house collapsed, my family has been living in the open, but no government agency has come to provide us relief,” Basnet bemoaned. He further said they were having a hard time managing food stuff as black marketing had become rampant.

SP Bikash Shrestha at District Police Office, Bhaktapur, however, said they had requested the private sector, including FNCCI to supply daily essentials to the victims. Bhaktapur CDO Anil Kumar Thakur, however, said they could not distribute food items as Nepal Food Corporation was yet to supply the daily essentials. He added that work of collecting details of the damage was on and they would try to deliver food items to the victims at the earliest.