Winter relief for all quake victims within 10 days: MoHA

KATHMANDU, Jan 2: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) has decided to distribute Rs 10,000 each to all quake victim families within the next 10 days.

The ministry's decision has come over a month after a cabinet meeting on November 25 decided to provide the quake victims with the amounts immediately.


Following widespread criticism over delay in distribution of winter relief to the earthquake victims, a meeting of the Central Disaster Relief Committee under MoHA decided to complete distribution of the winter relief amounts to all the victim families within the next 10 days at any cost.

"We have decided to carry out the task of winter relief distribution on a campaign footing. The committee will take all necessary measures required to complete the task within the given deadline," said Baburam Bhandari, under-secretary at the ministry and a focal person of the relief committee.

He said that the ministry will deploy additional staff at local bodies if needed, for distributing the relief amount to the affected families within the given timeframe.

Even after over a month of the government's decision, the Home Ministry has distributed the relief amounts to only 274,000 victim families out of the total of over 700,000 such families.

After the government failed to distribute the much-needed amounts to the affected people who have been living in a pathetic condition in flimsy huts, various bodies had accused it of apathy and urged it to immediately distribute the amounts.

Expressing serious concern over delay in distributing relief materials to the victims even amid the freezing weather, the Supreme Court, a parliamentary committee, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, the National Human Rights Commission and newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyewali of the National Reconstruction Authority a few days ago urged the ministry to distribute the amounts without further delay.

The CIAA had criticized the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for not playing an effective role in ensuring timely distribution of relief materials to the quake victims. The anti-graft body had even directed the Home Ministry to distribute not only the winter relief amounts but also other essential materials also such as medicines and foodstuff that it has in stock.

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