Delay to start reconstruction works leaves quake victims suffer much (Commentary)

Pritam Bhattarai / Kathmandu: As the whole country is concentrated on ongoing Nepali Congress 13th General Convention, the future of Bijaya Krishna Silpakar, a survivor of the April 25 earthquake, apparently looks bleak.

His aspiration of living a normal life was shattered all of a sudden when the first jolt of the devastating quake crumbled his two-storey brick house at Bharraba Cho village in Bhaktapur.

Devastated with agony and worries thereafter, Silpakar, along with his wife and three children, moved from pillar to post to get a shelter only to find a refuse in a tent at Tewapokhari nearby his house some days later. But his stay there lasted almost three weeks as he was shifted to a tent at Siddhapokhari banks in Bhaktapur, where he and his family are living in now.

Now, Silpakar is bound to call this tent his home as he has lost all his hope of building a new house on his own for want of money he can make for the same. He has also lost his faith in the government to build him new house as part of its post-quake reconstruction programme, having lived in such deplorable condition but without any person or concerned authorities turning to him for help so far.

He said that he has not got anything from any sector so far as relief except for Rs 25,000 given by the Bhaktapur Municipality as part of immediate relief to quake victims and Rs 25,000 by Nepal Mandal Television.

“Forget about our shelter, I am struggling to manage two square meals a day for want of money,” said 54-year-old Silpakar, who is a cancer patient and visits Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital every six months for follow-ups.

The responsibility of supporting for the five-member family has fallen on Silpakar’s wife ever since he was diagnosed of the disease some years ago.

Now Silpakar’s wife works as construction worker and earns Rs 300 a day, which Silpakar said is not enough to feed the family and educate their children. His all three children go to school and Silpakar said that his relatives are helping them out with their studies, financially.

Silpakar’s predicaments embody that of thousands of people victimised by the quake across the country (exact data of the quake victims is yet to be established). The quake had killed more than 9,000 people, injured hundreds others and damaged thousands of structures.

However, most of them are forced to live in tents across the country with nowhere to go to live in after their houses were damaged by the quake, making them risky to live in. In some cases, some of them, who can afford it, have already left tents they were living in and started building houses on their own without no sign of the government building new houses for them as part of the post-quake reconstruction.

And governments are largely to blame for the situation. Almost 10 months after the quake and more than two months after the appointment of Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), the quake survivors are yet to get proper relief and shelter. To make the matter worse, the NRA’s announcement to kick-start reconstruction works from March 4 just expired. But, the process to begin the rebuilding works gets nowhere to take place.

Furthermore, the NRA’s failure to establish sub-regional offices across the country in time has made matters worse. The sub-regional offices, scheduled to come into operation by mid-January, are expected to coordinate between resource centres, which will have four or five VDCs and the NRA headquarters.

When asked, spokesperson at the NRA Suresh Adhikari made a silly excuse, saying that the process to recollect and verify data of genuine quake victims is yet to be completed. Apart from the delay in releasing budget, he also blames ongoing NC’s convention for the situation as he said that it requires the involvement of all party representatives in procedures before the reconstruction works start.

The NRA may start the rebuilding works soon. However, there is always chance that the genuine quake victims may be left out as fake quake victims always make their ways to the succor genuine quake victims are entitled to with their connections with people in power. So, recognising the genuine quake victims is a matter of concern. And, the reconstruction works should start soon least the quake victims should suffer much. RSS