“Had the government not promised us to give allowance, we would have continued our traditional work of making household utensils for livelihood,” said Surya Narayan Shahi. [break]
“Now we are suffering from hunger as we have no other source of income,” added Shahi, the chief of the Raute community. According to Shahi, the last time they received allowance was in May 2011. They were provided Rs 900,000 by the District Development Committee, Salyan.
"After that we haven´t got a single penny," said Shahi. A young Raute, Dil Bahadur Shahi, said the government´s negligence has put the very existence of Raute community under threat. The government had announced Rs 1000 per person per month for the estimated number of 150 people belonging to the community.
The District Development Committee in Surkhet, which is responsible for the distribution of the allowance, said that there was technical problem in distributing the money.
“They keep moving from one place to another and that makes our task difficult,” said Hiralal Regmi, a local development officer. Meanwhile, on the occasion of the opening of a branch office in Surkhet, Citizens Bank on Monday distributed relief package worth Rs 80,000 to the Rautes.
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