The government has decided to distribute an additional amount of Rs 10,000 to all the quake victims holding the red identity cards to buy warm clothes this winter. Red IDs were distributed to those victims whose houses were completely damaged by the quake while yellow cards were given to the ones whose houses were partially damaged.
Nar Bahadur neither has money to buy warm clothes nor will he receive the government-allocated fund. He is wondering how he will survive the unforgiving cold in a small makeshift tent.
“My ten-member family, including a three-year-old granddaughter and one-and-a-half year old grandson, is having tough time surviving the cold. We are extremely worried about how to lessen the wrath of the cold,” he added.
Similar is the plight of his neighbor, Dhan Maya Chepang. With two grandchildren, a son and his wife, Dhan Maya's family of five has been living in a shed sometimes and at other times they risk their lives for a little warmth by living in their quake-ravaged house.
Although her house has been completely destroyed, just like that of Nar Bahadur, she too received a yellow identity card, depriving her of the additional relief of Rs 10,000 to buy warm clothes.
Anyone would agree that the house of Nar Bahadur and Dhan Maya are completely ravaged. “The government, however, saw that our houses were damaged only partially and provided us with the yellow cards,” said Praveen Chepang, son of Dhan Maya.
Many houses in the hilly VDCs of Chitwan have been damaged by the devastating earthquake. The status of those houses was also revised few times before handing over the identity cards to the quake victims.
“We revised the status of the quake-damaged houses of Lothar twice. At first, 205 houses there were registered as completely destroyed. Later, the number was revised and it reached 270 houses,” informed the VDC Secretary Kul Prashad Acharya.
He further added that the District Disaster Relief Committee (DDRC) takes decision regarding the status of quake-damaged houses, not the VDC secretaries.
“We are also far from the district headquarters. That's why the government has not looked at our plights,” said Jhyaapu Ram Chepang, an elderly leader of Shyamrang, Lothar.
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