BARA, June 5: Altogether 541 tornado victims in Bara are in trouble ahead of the monsoon after the government halted construction of their houses as promised earlier saying their houses were partially damaged.
After being listed as beneficiaries, many victims had destroyed their partially-damaged homes hoping that they would get a new one. However, they had never thought that the government will suddenly stop the construction of the new houses.
Safi Mohammad Ansari of Purainiya informed that all five of his sons lost their homes in the first-ever recorded tornado that struck the southern parts of the country two months ago. However, the team deployed by the District Administration Office (DAO) and various other authorities only listed one of his sons as eligible beneficiary.
Tornado victims picket DAO
Recently, the government halted the construction of the houses of other four sons of Safi. With this, all 25 members of his family are forced to live a displaced life. Similarly, one of the houses of Habib Ansari was completely damaged while another house was partially damaged. Even though, the team listed him as beneficiary for one of his house the construction has now been halted.
According to him, he destroyed his house completely as he thought he will have a new house. Recently, more than half of the tornado victims of Feta Rural Municipality-7, Purainiya have been excluded from the list of beneficiaries.
Jakir Hussain, ward chief of Purainiya, informed Republica that only 89 houses were damaged in the local unit as per the initial report prepared by Bara Police.
The report prepared by the rural municipality showed that 88 houses have been damaged.
Later, a technical team deployed by the government and Nepal Red Cross Society prepared a detailed report which marked only 68 locals as beneficiaries.
And now, the team of the DAO and army has begun the construction of houses of only 32 beneficiaries by excluding many of the previous victims included in the list.
When asked about the exclusion of victims, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Bara, Rajesh Paudel, stated that the number of victims might be increased after proper investigation. He argued that the team entrusted with the responsibility of collecting details must have made mistakes.
However, he also said that the number of beneficiaries became high earlier also because many partially damaged houses were also listed as completely damaged houses.
Earlier, 1,387 victims in Bara were listed as beneficiaries. Brigadier General Binaya Bikram Rana informed Republica that only 843 houses are likely to be built for the victims.
