Landslide-victim family living in cave for months

By Our Correspondent,Bajura, Apr. 6: Seven family members of Rupdhan Sarki in Gotri of Jagannath Rural Municipality Ward No. 5 of Bajura have been living in a cave for the past seven months, after their house collapsed in a landslide. 

A road built by Jagannath Rural Municipality which passed from above and below Sarki’s house collapsed on September 25 last year, damaging his house. 

According to a local Nirajan Karki, the family shifted to the cave after their ancestral house caved in, leaving them with no option but to take shelter in the cave named ‘Dhugrigad’. 

“I was forced to live in this cave after the under-construction road fell on my house,” victim Sarki said.  

He claimed that the members were earning their livelihood working as daily wage workers, and so were unable to build another house on their own. 

Sarki also said his health condition was poor. Making matters worse, his son, daughter and wife are physically disabled. 

He said that his woes compounded after the collapse.  

“When it rains, we go to take shelter in relatives’ house and we stay in the cave when there is no rain.” 

Sarki complained that despite pledging to help him construct the house, the municipality has done nothing. He also complained that he has received no assistance whatsoever. 

The municipality, which was calming on the paper that there was enough job for the local inhabitants, has not provided one to able bodied family members of Sarki. On Friday last week, a group of journalists from different media and local levels gathered to attend a press conference of the rural municipality, organised at its centre in Juddhi, but failed to notice the problem of citizens like Sarki family. The conference boasted about the good works carried out by the municipality, but the family’s pain was completely ignored.  

Even though the rural municipality regulates the neighbourhood's budget, it has drawn a chorus of criticism for badly handling the Sarki family. 

However, Chief Administrative Officer Rajendra Prasad Joshi, who said he was unware of the family’s plight until recently, pledged necessary support for the family.