Even after the government declared three Kathmandu districts "crisis zone" last week, the Central Disaster Relief Committee, which is under the Home Ministry, hasn't discussed the issue of securing the equipment and expediting the task of demolition in the last few days.The main objective behind declaring the districts as crisis zone was to demolish such precarious structures and clear debris speedily.
"We have not yet discussed the process of getting the necessary equipment for building demolition. We also don't have budget for purchasing the equipment," said Rameshwor Dangal, joint secretary at the Home Ministry.
"We have been frequently asking the central committee to provide us equipment like concrete cutter, dozers, excavators and tippers. But seems like our demands have fallen in deaf ears," said Ek Narayan Dahal, chief of Kathmandu District Disaster Relief Committee.
According to Uttar Regmi, chief of a committee formed by Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) to tear down buildings, the KMC asked for 19 equipments, including dozers, excavators, tippers and concrete cutter, with the central committee more than three weeks ago.
Dahal said that the house owners have been forced to demolish their faulty structures manually. "Buildings that can be demolished within few hours using equipment are being pulled down in a week. This way, tearing down risky buildings will not be completed even in a year," added he.
He said the demolition work would have moved ahead swiftly if the local bodies could provide the equipment to house owners.
"Even manual demolition of risky structures has been difficult due to shortage of labors," added he.
"Owners of many houses that need to be demolished do not have money for the task. Such buildings have to be demolished by the local bodies, which the house owners will have to pay back later. But we have no equipments," added he.
Last week, the cabinet had approved "a working procedure for building demolition." As per the procedure, house owners should demolish their damaged buildings at their own cost under the supervision of the local body.
In the last two months, the government has managed to pull down only 750 buildings, although the KMC says more than 50,000 buildings are either damaged by the earthquake or violate building regulations.
Last month, Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sought equipment and other technical support from India, China, Japan and United States of America to demolish high-rise buildings. But none of the countries have so far come forward with the help.
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