Even some local political leaders who did not suffer any loss in the catastrophic quake received cash hand outs meant for victims by using their political clout to produce documents identifying them as victims.
Chief District Officer Deepak Raj Nepal informed that quake victims had filed complaints against three well known local politicians. "Two of them even came to the District Administration Office recently to return the identity cards recognizing them as quake victims and the Rs 15,000 they had collected," said Nepal, adding that three more people are expected to follow suit soon.Locals said that those who are now returning the money are doing it just to save their reputation.
CDO Nepal refused to reveal the identity of the persons saying names of those who returned the money immediately will not be made public.
The highest number of complaints about misuse of relief money was filed at Bhimeshwar VDC of the district.
It has been revealed that almost three dozen people from the VDC pretended to be victims and provided fake details to claim Rs 15,000 provided by the government. Likewise, 25 written complaints were filed against those who received relief money at Kamalamai municipality.
"Even the workers at the administration office themselves have encouraged and allowed their relatives to fill out fake details to make them eligible for relief money," said a local, requesting anonymity.
Sujan Shrestha of Madi Bazaar pointed out the negligence of VDC secretaries in the distribution process. "VDC secretaries hand out the aid money without making any serious effort to verify the truthfulness of the documents," he said.
However, as the number of complaints grew, the DAO formed a five-member team last week to verify the documents presented by people who claim to be victims.
Incidentally, the team has not yet started investigating into any of the complaints so far.
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