In response to a request letter sent by the Disaster Management Committee (DMC) at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has stated that it will sanction the second lot of compensation only next fiscal year. MoF has categorically ruled out possibility of providing the second installment within this fiscal year. [break]
“Going by the content of the letter, we will not be able to distribute the second installment of the relief package unless the government provides budget next fiscal year,” Rudra Khadka, chief of DMC, which provides compensation and relief to the victims of natural calamities, told myrepublica.com. “MoF has cited dearth of funds for its inability to provide compensation and relief to the Koshi flood victims this fiscal year.”
DMC expresses its inability to allocate the second lot of compensation in the face of the flood victims threatening the chief district officer (CDO) of Sunsari, Ram Prasad Thapaliya, to launch fresh agitation.
“The government is compelling us to call a new phase of strike by delaying the allocation of relief,” Pancha Narayan Mandal, coordinator of the Koshi Flood Victims Struggle Committee (KFVSC), told myrepublica.com.
Earlier, KFVSC, which has already carried out over 12 rounds of agitation demanding timely distribution of compensation and relief materials, had decided to withdraw its latest strike after Sunsari CDO Thapaliya, also the head of the District Natural Disaster Relief Committee (DNDRC), assured the agitating flood victims to complete relief distribution by March 5.
As the deadline set by DNDRC elapses, DMC has managed to sanction only Rs 150 million for the Koshi flood victims so far. DMC has sought another Rs 644 million, which MoF denies to allot in the current fiscal year, to provide compensation and relief materials to all the flood victims. DNDRC has prepared a list of 7,563 families entitled to compensation.
On August 18, 2008, the Koshi river had inundated four villages in Sunsari district -- Pashchim Kusaha, Sripur, Haripur and Laukahi -- breaching its eastern embankments. While thousands of families fled their homes to escape the floods , crops worth millions of rupees were damaged. Families displaced by the floods have been languishing in makeshift camps ever since.
In the wake of the first agitation by the flood victims, the cabinet had decided to compensate them for their lost land and properties in two installments. DMC had allocated Rs 804 million for the flood victims in the first installment.
Related story
Over 80 percent quake victims miss deadline for second tranche...
_20220508065243.jpg)
