National
17,000 cu ft timber distributed in Sindhupalchok
The Sindhupalchok District Forest Office (DFO) has distributed 17,000 cubic feet timber to the earthquake survivors for house construction.Anish Tiwari
The Sindhupalchok District Forest Office (DFO) has distributed 17,000 cubic feet timber to the earthquake survivors for house construction.
District Forest Officer Shiva Sapkota said they had brought 20,000 cubic feet timber from Nawalparasi to distribute it to an estimated 50,000 households whose homes were razed to the ground as a result of the 2015 earthquakes.
Despite distributing the timber, very few households have begun construction.
With a meagre Rs 50,000, distributed to each quake-affected family as the first portion of the housing aid, starting a house construction project is not a practical way of spending the money, reckons the people who are still living in temporary shelters. The timber that they collected from the DFO, meanwhile, face decay risk.
It is the same in other parts of the country ravaged by the earthquakes. Most families have not built their homes because of insufficient capital.
According to the National Reconstruction Authority, more than 72,289 families in Sindhupalchok have received the first tranche of the housing aid so far.