Govt. should raise hope among people: State Affairs Committee President Khatiwada
KATHMANDU: President of the House of Representatives, State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, Ramhari Khatiwada, has urged the three-tier governments to collect the details of losses caused by landslide and flood occurred for three days from September 26 within 15 days and focused its attention immediately in reconstruction and rehabilitation.
He stressed the need of carrying out activities related to reconstruction and rehabilitation within the slated time at a time when the government has declared 72 local levels of 16 disaster hit districts as disaster crisis areas for three months.
Khatiwada said, “The government should raise hope among the people during disaster. It should make relief and rehabilitation task as the first priority.”
Talking to mediaperson about losses, relief, rescue and reconstruction caused by landslide and flood in Okhaldhunga, Nepali Congress leader and a parliamentarian from Okhaldhunga, Khatiwada underlined that the government should be more serious about the losses caused by the landslide and flood following incessant rainfall.
“The disaster have damaged many big structures and caused a huge destruction of lives and properties. Landslide and flood have washed away many electric poles as well as displaced some settlements. Declaring the disaster crisis areas is not enough. So the federal government should mobilize province and province to the local levels in order to carryout reconstruction and rehabilitation”, he mentioned.
“Works have to be carried out at a war footing after declaring the flood and landslide affected areas as ‘crisis zone’. How much budget the government has for this purpose and what is the shortfall, the statistics on such topics needs to be determined. The data of damage and the affected population should be collected from the local levels in 15 days and we have to engage in the reconstruction and rehabilitation works thereafter,” Committee President Khatiwada said.
He called for putting to an end the situation of taking so many years in the name of reconstruction. “The earthquake-damaged structures have not yet been rebuilt in Jajarkot and Rukum, and there are reports that the disaster-hit people have not received the relief assistance even after 11 months of the disaster. The Jajarkot earthquake occurred on Nov 3, 2023,” he said.
Stating that the people affected by the 2015 Gorkha earthquake have not yet been issued the second and third tranche of relief amount for rebuilding their houses damaged due to the disaster, although they got the first tranche, he said this scenario indicated that we need to carry out the reconstruction and rehabilitation works in a speedy manner.
According to him, hopes should be rekindled among the disaster survivors and the government should think about the nation as a whole.
Pointing out that many roads are damaged and disrupted even now and these roads should be rebuilt and brought into operation as soon as possible, the Good Governance Committee president said a call for domestic and international support should be made for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the damaged infrastructures.
“Five to six suspension bridges have been destroyed by the flooding and landslide in Okhaldhunga district alone. New ones have to be built immediately in their place. The disaster has caused massive damage in Champadevi, Manebhanjyang and Sunkoshi Rural Municipalities. Damage has also occurred in places near the banks of the Sunkoshi and Dudhkoshi rivers,” he said.
He said the rampant sand mining near the river banks and in the rivers has also aggravated the situation and made the disaster more ferocious and stressed on the need of making settlements in places near the rivers and vulnerable places secure and systematic, in a planned way.
