Jumla landslide victims’ family to get compensation

By Netra Shahi Jumla, July 17: Officials have travelled to Acharyalihi, Hima Rural Municipality–1, in Jumla, where a landslide killed three persons of the same family on Thursday night.

Chairman of the District Coordination Committee Gaurinanda Acharya, Chairman of Hima Rural Municipality Laxman Bahadur Shahi, Chief District Officer (CDO) Bijaya Kumari Prasain, heads of security agencies and representatives from the Federation of Nepali Journalists, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and other non-governmental organisations present in the district visited the site where the powerhouse of the Bhitri River micro-hydropower project was washed away and inspected the damage.

Talking to journalists, Municipality Chair Shahi said that the family of the deceased would be given Rs. 100,000 as immediate relief. He also said that the local level would request the provincial government to rebuild the powerhouse.

CDO Prasain shared that, as per the law, the federal government would also provide Rs. 100,000 per person as relief and provide an additional Rs. 100,000 to the families that had lost members.

The three people that lost their lives in the landslide were the wife and two sons of the powerhouse operator Gorakh Bahadur Rawat. Rawat fainted after discovering the dead bodies of his spouse and children and needed to be rushed to the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences. He has since recovered and been discharged.

According to Sub-Inspector Ram Prasad Chaulagain of the Badki Police Station in Hima–1, Rawat’s wife Bimala was 30 years old and his sons Bharat and Surya were nine and eight years old respectively. Rawat was in the village at the time of the incident while his family was asleep inside the powerhouse.

The landslide was caused by the water that overflowed from the micro-hydro’s project.