ROLPA, Feb 22: The second trimester of the current fiscal year is about to end but the locals of four rural municipalities of Rolpa are yet to receive the first tranche of social security allowance.
As per government provisions, elderly people, single women, disabled people among others should be provided with their monthly allowance once in every four months in a year. Unfortunately, that has not materialized yet for many locals of Rolpa. Citing financial crunch, the rural municipalities of Sunchahari, Lungri, Subarnabati and Thabang have deprived the locals of their allowances.
In the first local elections conducted after 20 years, the villagers had shown enthusiastic participation expecting great changes in their villages. But after being deprived of their allowance in the first year after electing their local representatives, the people have been compelled to think about their decision.
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"We need a total budget of Rs 10.9 million but we have been provided with a budget of Rs 6.6 million only. This is the reason why we have not been able to distribute the allowance," said Bir Bahadur Pun, chief administrative officer of Sunchahari Rural Municipality. According to him, elderly citizens in villages have started accusing them of misappropriating their allowances.
Similarly, locals of Thabang are also planning to encircle the rural municipality office to vent their ire due to the delay in distribution of allowance. "We have not yet received the full budget. So, we have no other option than to wait for the government to provide the budget," said Bir Bahadur Gharti, chief of Thabang.
As per the rule, eligible locals should be provided with the second tranche of allowance in February. But they have not yet received the first tranche. Ward secretaries are having a hard time to face the locals as they are the ones responsible to distribute the allowance.
There are so many elderly and disabled people in the villages for whom the allowance is the only source of income. "We have been managing our day-to-day life with great difficulty waiting for our allowance," said one elderly of Thabang, adding, "There are so many representatives in our village but I don't know what they are doing."
