A group of angry quake victims chanted strong slogans against Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, when he was visiting Basantapur area and National Trauma Center in Kathmandu, to take stock of the health condition of those injured in the earthquake. They complained that the government was not doing enough to meet the basic needs of earthquake victims, who are forced to live in open space away from their homes as their houses collapsed due to the earthquake.
Prime Minister Koirala had come out to inspect earthquake affected areas on Wednesday—five days after the massive earthquake devastated the country. The victims have complained that Koirala as the top executive of the country had failed to give due heed to the problems of those orphaned, rendered homeless and severely injured by the earthquake.
Another group of irate victims protested against Deputy prime Minister Bam Dev Gautam at Shobha Bhagawati and other places for the government apathy to provide them with basic necessities. The agitating earthquake victims complained that although the government was receiving a huge amount of aid and other logistics they had failed to reach the genuine victims of the earthquake.
"We are living here since Saturday. We neither got enough food to eat, nor are we provided with basic things like tents. Small children do not eat the food provided by the government. You can imagine a situation how we are living here in this open space even without tents," complained Gopal Shrestha, who is living in Army Pavillion. He criticized the government for doing not much to the earthquake victims.
The failure of the government to reach even victims of Kathmandu has put questions if the victims outside Kathmandu Valley are provided with basic necessities. Several districts outside Kathmandu Valley including Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Nuwakot, Dhading, Ramechhap, Gorkha are among the districts heavily affected by Saturday earthquake.
On Wednesday morning, agitating victims in Dolakha picketed the District Administration Office in Charikot and even burnt down a few chairs after bringing them out of the office, apparently miffed by the delayed response of the local administration.
Chief District Officer Prem Lal Lamichhane then addressed to the agitating victims, saying that they were doing their best to provide relief to the victims. He said that although they requested to Home Ministry in Kathmandu to supply daily essentials and other logistical items so that they could distribute them to the victims, the ministry was yet to send those logistics.
Also, agitating earthquake victims in Sanga Chowk in Sindhupalchowk captured three containers of tents and other logistics being feried by Nepal Army trucks on Wednesday. The victims complained that they had to take the forceful measure as the government relief did not reach to them even five days after the quake.
This was the first consignment of relief materials sent by the government to earthquake victims in Sindhupalchowk district.
Keeping in view of the complaints received from the victims, the government on Wednesday formed a coordination committee under Minister for Supply Sunil Bahadur Thapa to collect and distribute relief materials including food to earthquake victims living outside Kathmandu Valley.
Minister for Information and Communications Dr Minendra Rijal said they will start putting efforts on providing relief and carrying out rehabilitation works from Thursday. 'We are so far focused on rescuing the quake affected people. Now we plan to focus on relief and rehabilitation," said Minister Rijal, who is also the government spokesperson.
The government has decided to provide Rs 40,000 each to the quake victim family as immediate relief. According to Home Ministry, the government has already distributed over 27,000 tents to earthquake victims both in Kathmandu Valley and outside.
NHRC CONCLUDES ASSISTANCE HAD NOT REACHED REAL VICTIMS
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has concluded that the real earthquake victims had not received relief, corroborating to the complaints of many earthquake victims both within Kathmandu Valley and beyond.
Issuing a press statement on Wednesday, the national human rights body said the food and other relief materials received from various countries were still lying at Tribhuvan International Airport. "The NHRC draws attention of the concerned government authorities to take the relief materials and assistance received to victims both through land and air route,"said the statement.
The NHRC has also drawn attention of the government to rescue all those still trapped in debris and take necessary measures to avoid any possible any possible outbreak of epidemic diseases. The NHRC also drew attention of the government to cremate dead bodies at the earliest so that they won't leave any negative effect on human health.
Among other things, the NHRC also asked the government to control incidence of theft as most people are living away from their homes and take appropriate measures to curb artificial price hike of daily essentials in the market.
MORE PUBLICITY STUNTS, LESS WORKS
Although various 25 countries pledged assistance to earthquake victims in Nepal, the monetary assistance and relief materials including foods from only a few countries has actually arrived in Kathmandu so far.
"We have received direct assistance of US $10 million from Bhutan so far. The aid amount and assistance pledged by other countries are yet to reach to us," Minister Rijal said.
Officials said the government is receiving various relief materials including tents from Thailand via two aircrafts on Thursday. While Pakistani government is providing over 100,000 tents, the government is planning to ask both India and China to provide additional tents for the victims.
Nepalese security personnel deployed in the search and rescue and rehabilitation works complained that many foreign teams that has landed in Kathmandu for providing assistance to the earthquake victims are found involved in publicity stunts than actual works in the field.
"Some foreign teams are here already, but their equipments are yet to reach in Kathmandu," Armed Police Force personnel involved in the search and rescue operation in Bhaktapur told Republica.
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