Many elderly people from northern Dhading are reluctant to resettle to Dhadingbesi, the district headquarters, knowing that their landslides could be wiped out any time by landslides.

The National Reconstru- ction Authority (NRA) has identified several settlements in northern Dhading as highly vulnerable to landslides following the earthquake of April 25, 2015. The authority has proposed relocating 246 families from 10 settlements to Dhadingbesi by offering each family Rs 200,000 to buy land plots.

However, the elderly members of these families are not keen on leaving the place where they have spend all their lives.

Although the earthquake had flattened most homes in northern Dhading, many families have rebuild new homes by now, others are in the building process.

Krishna Bahadur Tamang of Darkha Rural Municipality-8 said he was waiting for the NRA to release the third and final instalment of the housing grant to complete his new home.

“The authority is now refusing us the final instalment of the grant saying that we need to move elsewhere because of landslide danger. We do not know what to do,” he said.

The families whose homes are still incomplete could be convinced into relocating to safer locations, but those families who have already completed building new homes with their own resources are not so certain.

In Hindung, 23 families have already moved into new homes and they are not ready to leave the village.  

According to the government records, 99 percent of the quake-affected families in Dhading have already received the first instalment of the housing aid.

A total 76,261 families were included on the housing aid list. Of them, around 53 percent families have received the second instalment and around 40 percent families have received third instalment of the aid.