Bara, April 22

Storm victims in Bara have been deprived of the relief pledged by the provincial government  for want of necessary documents.

Earlier, in the wake of the deadly storm that barrelled through a swathe of Bara and Parsa districts, killing 28 people and flattening homes, the government in Province 2 had declared Rs 300,000 in relief to each of the families of the deceased.

Faijula Ansari of Pheta Rural Municipality, on Friday, had reached a programme organised by the provincial government to hand over relief at the district coordination committee, but had to return empty-handed after he couldn’t submit the documents sought by the government.

Ansari had lost his wife Muskima and daughter-in-law Babiya in the disaster on the fateful day of March 31.

Besides Ansari, 19 other families in the district who lost their near and dear ones in the freak weather storm have been deprived of relief.

As per the guidelines laid down by the Relief and Reconstruction Committee led by Province 2 Internal Affairs and Law Minister Gyanendra Yadav formed by the provincial government to help the storm victims, the families who lost their kin in the storm are required to submit citizenship certificate of the deceased and their own, besides handing in death certificate issued by the hospital concerned, the district administration office and the local body concerned and so on.

On his part, Chief Minister Lalbabu Rau’s press adviser Atis Mishra clarified that the victims would be provided relief as soon as they submitted the required documents. “As they didn’t have the required documents, there was no way relief could be provided to someone without the required documents,” he said.

As per sources in the provincial government, a few local bodies, save Pheta Rural Municipality have not been able to report the names of the next of kin of the deceased.

As many as 16 persons had lost their lives in the storm in Pheta alone. “As there was dispute in the families as to who would get the money, the same has created problems for the local bodies to verify the next of kin of a few of the deceased,” the source added.