Khalanga, which survived the rage of the Mahakali River, witnessed a high level visit by government officials, including by Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi, who declared Darchula a crisis-hit district. The families displaced or rendered homeless by the flooding have been taking refuge at their relatives´ places. However, the government has neither made any efforts to relocate the victims nor to provide them any relief package. [break]
The District Administration Office recently formed an information mechanism with Assistant Chief District Officer Dharmananda Joshi as coordinator to collect details of loss of lives and property.
"It is already too late to start collecting the loss details. We will now work on war footing to distribute relief packages to the victims," CDO Chiranjivi Basnet said after the meeting of District Disaster Manage Committee (DDMC) on Sunday. However, the landslides at several sections of the Darchula-Baitadi road have been hampering relief efforts.
"We cannot clear the road in less than a month even if we use all the available resources," an official from the Department of Roads said after the DDMC meeting. Rains last week trigged landslides at nine different places along the Darchula-Baitadi road.
The locals said that the administration should first work to clear the road without delay if it really wants to help the flood victims.
Besides the people in Khalanga, the people living along the Mahakali River banks at Joljiba, which is 27 kilometers from Khalanga, are facing problems after the flood swept away a suspension bridge linking Nepal and India. The suspension bridge was the only way to travel to the Indian border town for the people of Lali, Uku, Dandakot, Kharkada and Rithachupata, among other VDCs of the area.
Patients have also been suffering as they have been unable to visit the nearby Indian towns for treatment due to disruption of road transport. Making matters worse, telehone services have been disrupted across the district after lightning struck a telephone tower virtually cutting Darchula folks from the outside world and redering them more vulnarable to possible disasters.
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