GORKHA, Jan 8: The government has ordered the local administration to distribute Rs 10,OOO meant for warm clothes for earthquake victims within next week. The directive has put VDC secretaries in the district, the epicenter of the April 25 earthquake, under pressure. The concerns stem from the fact that many VDCs in the district don't have secretaries.
16 out of the total 60 VDCs in districts don't have secretaries. In lack of secretaries, local administration has given the responsibilities of distributing the relief in two or three VDCs to some of the secretaries. The responsibility comes at a time when they are already busy with preparing and presenting annual budget plans for the VDCs.
The call comes at a time when earthquake victims in the district are facing shortage of supplies, clothes and other amenities while relief materials donated by various organizations are rotting in stores. Twelve thousand kilogram of rice, blankets and tarpaulins donated by various individuals and organizations are yet to be distributed. The VDC secretaries are tasked with the responsibilities to distribute this relief in VDCs allocated to them by the local administration.
"Earlier, the administration was sleeping and when the deadline to complete the distribution approached near, it transferred the headache to us," said a VDC secretary, wishing to remain unnamed. "We have to distribute relief materials and cash within a week. How can we do it in so little time," he fumed.
According to a member of the District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee (DNDRC), the presence of CIAA as well as wide coverage on the lack of timely distribution of relief among victims has put pressure on the administration to do the job without delay. "Along with the media, the CIAA is here and looking at the distribution closely. Media coverage is bringing situation of the quake victims to the fore constantly. These all has put pressure on the administration to expedite the distribution," he said.
On Sunday this week, two teams of CIAA raided some of the government offices. This forced DNDRC to distribute relief materials as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, secretaries in 12 VDCs said that they have not received relief amount of Rs 10,000 for the warm clothes meant to be distributed among the quake victims. Along with them, two municipalities have also not received the amount so far.
"Things are being done haphazardly. They (administration) kept the relief materials in store for months and let them rot. And now all of a sudden, they turn to us and give us an unrealistic deadline for distributing all the relief," said another VDC secretary, also requesting anonymity. "There should have been proper plan for all this."
The secretary further added that the administration has put all the responsibilities, including transporting relief materials to respective VDCs, on the VDC secretaries without assigning budget headings for the expenditure. "How are we supposed to transport all the relief materials to our VDCs. Where are we going to get the budget for all this? Under which title should these expenditures be mentioned?" he asked informing that administration has been not cooperating in resolving such issues.
"They (administration officials) did not do their duty properly earlier and now they have shifted all of that on our head. Instead of cooperating in resolving the issue, they have turned deaf to our repeated calls for discussions," he said adding that "they have stopped responding to phone calls. They switch off mobile phones, if called for advice and suggestions."
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