Regmi, who visited Khalanga, the district headquarters of Darchula, on Thursday, said the reconstruction budget will exclusively be spent in Darchula -- the district worst-hit by the flood in Mahakali River.[break]
Regmi, who was accompanied by Minister of Home Affairs Madhab Ghimire, Minister of Physical Infrastructure Chhabiraj Panta, Minister of Local Development Biddhyadhar Mallik, Minister of Irrigation Umakanta Jha and Chief Secretary Lila Mani Poudel, also promised to look into allegations of Indian authorities opening all the doors of the Dhaulijunga dam, causing damage to Nepali villages.
After local leaders, who are angry with the government for responding to the plight of the flood victims “too late”, threatened to prevent Regmi and other ministers from flying back to Kathmandu, Regmi also assured to declare Darchula as a crisis-hit district.
The Mahakali River flood, which began on Sunday and continued for almost three days, has swept away 105 houses, 12 government office buildings, 17 huts of landless squatters and four temples apart from badly damaging a 13 km-stretch of the Baitadi-Darchula road in Darchula. Three people were also swept away by the flood.
As authorities continue to collect more details of the damage, the number of houses swept away by the Mahakali River flood is expected to increase.
Apart from rebuilding the swept away government buildings and the Baitadi-Darchula road, the reconstruction budget, announced by Regmi, will also be used in constructing an embankment along the Mahakali River.
At a press conference in Khalanga on Thursday, Regmi also announced to provide Rs 35,000 to the flood-hit families each in immediate relief. The government has already provided Rs 50 million for this purpose.
Hungry and homeless
“For the last three days, I have not eaten anything apart from beaten rice,” said Jaya Bahadur Thagunna, one of the locals of Darchula displaced by the Mahakali River flood. “I have nothing else to eat. All my properties have been swept away by the river.”
Thagunna´s wife and children are also surviving on beaten rice. His family is now taking shelter at a neighbor´s house.
Like Thagunna, there are more than 3,200 people who are now taking shelter at neighbors´ houses, temples, schools and public places after being displaced by the flood. Some of them are forced to sleep under the open sky.
Most of them have no food to eat and no potable water to drink. “Some flood victims are not ready to accept relief materials,” said Darchula´s Chief District Officer (CDO) Chiranjivi Adhikari. “They rather prefer to stay hungry.”
Most of the flood victims seem to be worried about their future.
Durga Bishta, one of the flood victims, had recently built a new house at a cost of around Rs 4 million. “Just a couple of days before the flood, I had had my house painted. I was happy to have my own house,” he said. “Now, I am homeless.”
Bishta says he does not want the government to distribute just a few kgs of beaten rice to them. “We urge the government to rehabilitate us at the earliest,” he said.
As the flood swept away the district hospital, too, the flood-hit people are finding it difficult to get medical treatment. Patients who were receiving treatment at the district hospital have now been shifted to other places. “We are providing treatment to patients under the open sky,” said Dr Rameshwor Devkota of the district hospital.
Related story
Taplejung-Darchula bike tour concludes
_20191222200001.jpg)
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
