A meeting of a high-level committee, led by Home Minister Bamdev Gautam, decided to extend the deadline Wednesday as moving people from such settlements could not take place in the past 15 days.
A cabinet meeting held at Baluwatar on June 30 had decided to direct the three ministries--Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, and Ministry of Urban Development--to relocate villages at risk of landslides in the 15 earthquake-hit districts to safer locations within 15 days.
"But many settlements in the earthquake-hit districts are yet to be relocated. Likewise, local bodies are yet to set up basic infrastructures at locations where landslide-threatened locals have temporarily shifted," said Padma Mainali, spokesperson of Ministry of Urban Development.
Almost 50,000 households in around 200 settlements in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Dhading, Dolakha, Gorkha, Kavre, Lamjung, Nuwakot, Okhaldhunga, Rasuwa, Sindhuli, Sindhupalchowk, Solukhumbhu, Ramechhap and Makwanpur have been identified as facing the risk of landslides.
However, Home Ministry officials said the locals are unwilling to be relocated even though they know that their settlements are at risk of landslides as they do not want to go far away from their villages just to live in temporary camps.
"They say, if the relocation is just for a temporary period, they would rather make an alternative arrangement near their village," said secretary at the Home Ministry Surya Prasad Silwal last week.
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