KATHMANDU, July 22: Unified CPN (Maoist) politburo member Janardan Sharma has accused the government of treating people in remote mid-western districts in a biased way and not doing enough to prevent the outbreak of cholera there.
Around 200 people have fallen prey to cholera in Jajarkot, Rukum and other neighboring districts. There have been widespread complaints at local level that the government failed to do the needful to prevent the outbreak.
Sharma, who returned Kathmandu on Tuesday after visiting the disease-hit areas, was speaking at a function organized by the Rukum-Kathmandu liaison office of the UCPN (Maoist) here on Wednesday.
Sharma demanded the government to declare the cholera-affected districts as emergency areas and take immediate measures to prevent the disease from spreading further. Sharma, who is also a former minister for Peace and Reconstruction, demanded the government to provide Rs 200,000 as compensation to the family of those who lost their lives due to the government apathy.
Meanwhile, the liaison office handed over Rs 89,000 to the UCPN-M action committee formed to distribute relief in the disease-hit areas.