National
Aid, resettlement elude flood-hit in Dadeldhura
Several villages in Dadeldhura get flooded by Rangun River during monsoon. Hundreds of families have been rendered homeless by floods till date, but the local authorities have done very little to rehabilitate them.DR Panta
Several villages in Dadeldhura get flooded by Rangun River during monsoon. Hundreds of families have been rendered homeless by floods till date, but the local authorities have done very little to rehabilitate them.
Krishna Bhatta of Jogbudha is one of many people who lost his land and farmland to the flood in Rangun River. The 57-year-old said he used to have a house and a farmland spread over 17 ropani land. “I lost everything to the flood. I am homeless now,” he said.
Bhatta has not received any kind of aid so far, nor has the other flood victims.
Another flood displaced Dharma Bahadur Thapa from Parshuram Municipality said flood waters have caused an utter devastation in his area.
“Rain-swollen river washes away a vast swathes of farmland and homes almost every monsoon. The number of flood victims is increasing by the year,” Thapa said.
In Parshuram Municipality and Alital VDC alone, he added, there are around 700 people who have lost their homes in floods.
According to a government data, floods have swept away around 7,000 ropani land in the past 15 years.
Though the government had prepared a programme to resettle the flood victims four years ago, it was halted after the Urban Development and Building Construction Office (UDBCO) in Dipayal, Doti, cancelled the tender invitation for land procurement.
Chief District Officer Prem Prakash Luitel said the programme never took off because the UDBCO did not cooperate.
“The number of flood victims is increasing every year, but we have been unable to resettle them,” he said.