NEPALGUNJ, June 28: More than 1,000 Nepali migrant workers who survived the recent flooding and landslides in the Indian state of Uttarakhand have returned to Nepal through Nepalgunj.
According to Banke District Administration Office (DAO), the number of Nepali survivors who returned through Nepalgunj reached 1,295 as of Thursday.[break]
Banke Chief District Officer (CDO) Basanta Kumar Kanojiya said 10 Nepali migrant workers arrived in Nepalgunj on Thursday. ´We are expecting more of them,´ he said.
The DAO has been providing travel expenses to those who have no money to return to their villages. According to the DAO, 69 migrant workers have been provided travel expenses so far.
Most Nepali migrant workers stranded by flooding and landslides in Uttarakhand had gone there to work as porters who carry Hindu pilgrims to religious shrines such as Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri. The Indian government has been helping the migrants reach the Nepali border towns. They are left on their own for the onward journey home.
Meanwhile, according a report from our Chitwan correspondent Chadani Hamal, the situation of nine people from Aadarsh VDC-1 in Gaidakot, who were also on pilgrimage in India, is still unknown. They have not contacted their families for the last 15 days.
Family members of the nine pilgrims had gone to India for a search, but to no avail. Kirtinath Chalise of Gaidakot, his wife and their eldest son are among those unaccounted for following the deluge.
“Over two weeks ago, they had called me saying they would be home in the next five days. After two days, we heard about the flooding, and since then we have not received any information,” Ek Nath Chalise said, recalling his nephew Harishchandra calling him from India.
“We contacted every possible place from the Nepali embassy in India to the Indian embassy in Nepal to learn about their situation. But we found no information,” Kirtinath"s younger son Prakash said.
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Why the delay?
