GORKHA, April 24:  The Barpak Sulikot Rural Municipality in Gorkha observed a public holiday today, commemorating the Gorkha Earthquake that occurred on Baisakh 12, 2072 (April 25, 2015) with its epicenter at Barpak.

The local government announced a public holiday for today in commemoration of the devastating Gorkha earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, according to rural municipality Chair Bishnu Prasad Bhatta. A meeting of the rural municipality's executive body on Tuesday agreed to observe the public holiday on Baisakh 12 in the Nepali calendar in memory of those killed in the disaster.

A special program was organized at the playground of Barpak-based Himalaya Secondary School today to pay tributes to those killed in the disaster. The official data puts the number of the quake fatalities at 8,979 with 471 in Gorkha district alone and 72 in Barpak. A total of 22,309 were injured in the quake while it highly affected 14 districts causing damages in 31 districts in the country.