While the officials have remained busy making arrangements for relief distribution in the remote villages, some officials at Manthali airport were worrying about what to do with bundles of used clothes received as relief from neighboring India.
The clothes bundles were found scattered at the airport premises and office rooms as the displaced locals refused to accept them. Some of the items were tattered."The locals not only rejected the clothes but also strongly protested at being offered such used clothes as relief at this difficult time," said Bimal Niraula, a member of the district disaster relief committee.
Of the half dozen trucks carrying relief materials, one truck containing clothes dropped off the bundles, and there was dillydallying over queries concerning the type of clothes, he said adding , some of the stakeholders refused to entertain any questions and some others said they were new clothes. But when they opened the bundles, they found tattered old clothes including underwear.
Gundha Das Shrestha, 52, a local farmer, said, "We were hoping to get some new clothes as most of our clothes are buried under earthquake debris, but once the bundles were opened, we were horrified to see only tattered clothes."
Nepal had asked India not to send old clothes and has banned the distribution of such clothes to earthquake victims as relief after coming across various groups and organizations doing just that in various districts.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had also warned the local authorities not to unload clothes marked used, pointing out that such clothes may transmit communicable diseases or cause infections.
"Those clothes have become a real burden for us, as we do not have space to store them," Niraula said adding that the rain had compounded the problem.
"We thought of sending them back to India but because of budget constraints, they are being left there to decay," he said. The clothes were brought to Nepal via Biratnagar entry point.
Earlier, government officials had found around 22 bags of used and tattered clothes in a truck that arrived in Kathmandu from India along with other relief materials, and these were not distributed.
Another Manthali local, Ratna Bahadur Newar, said the government was at fault in allowing in the relief materials without confirming their type and quality.
An official requesting anonymity said, a few local authorities plan to distribute the clothes in the remotest villages such as Gumdel, Bamti, Kuvukasthali, Pirti and Dura Gaun, which lack road connectivity.
Of the 14 quake-affected districts, Ramechhap is one of the worst hit, with 39 fatalities, 34 injured and 26,743 houses completely destroyed.
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