Business activities in Dhading Besi, the district headquarters of Dhading, have increased of late, thanks to the earthquake victims visiting on a daily basis to withdraw the first tranche of housing reconstruction aid from local banks.

The earthquake victims, however, are not spending the housing aid on construction materials. Most of them are buying clothes, mobile phones and electronic goods, with the festival season approaching close.

Local hotels and restaurants are also doing brisk business.

Dhurba Thapa, who runs a hardware store at Pucchar Bazaar, said construction materials are not on the buying list of the earthquake victims.  

“If you go about the town from one shop to another, you will see only a handful customers in hardware stores,” said Thapa.

 Yashu Tamang, a quake survivor from Jharlang, said with several roads damaged due to rains, transporting construction materials was out of question for him and other people from his village.

“I bought clothes and other goods worth Rs 28,000. I plan to use the rest of the money for the Dashain festival,” he said.   The National Reconstruction Authority has been distributing Rs 50,000 each to the families displaced by the Gorkha Earthquake of last year, as the first instalment of the Rs 200,000 housing aid.