Seventy-eight-year-old Bhagirathi BK of Bachha VDC-7 in Parbat district will not be receiving her social security allowance which she hoped to spend for celebrating this year’s Dashain.

“Me and my husband would combinedly have Rs 8,000, which would have been more than enough for us to get through the festival,” she said.

With BK’s husband bed-ridden for the past several months, it is up to her to take care of her ailing partner and put food on the table. “I cannot believe they stopped our allowance during Dashain,” she said.

BK tried borrowing money from her neighbours and relatives, but she said it was difficult to get loan during the festival season.

Gopal Pathak of Pangrang shared a similar plight. “This year’s Dashain will be a sad affair. Without the allowance our plan to celebrate has been affected,” he said.  Elderly citizens have claimed they could not get their allowance because of the negligence of District Development Committee (DDC). The DDC delayed in releasing the fund to the concerned authorities, they said.

The DDC officials said they could not release the fund in time because of problems in banking system. “We have learnt that the banks that were supposed to distribute the allowance are having problems with their system,” said DDC officer Liladhar Subedi.

 Meanwhile, the banks responsible for social security allowance distribution in the district claimed that the problem was with the DDC.

Sundar Singh Bhandari, manager of Garima Development Bank at Kushma, said they could not distribute the allowance because of the problem in cheque exchange. “We could not cash the cheques issued by the DDC on time,” Bhandari said.

The DDC has allocated Rs 35 million as a social security allowance to for elderly persons in 47 VDCs and one municipality in the district.