Nepal government criticised for

blocking earthquake aid to remote

areas
Finance secretary denies material is subject to import duties, as police stop
private aid trucks and state orders all overseas money to be paid into its
fund

A young boy, Gigar Rama, eats lunch inside a temporary shelter in Kathmandu on Saturday. Photograph:
Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

Jason Burke and Ishwar Rauniyar in Kathmandu-Saturday 2 May 2015

The Nepali government is increasingly under fire for blocking private initiatives
bringing desperately needed assistance to remote areas, and allegedly obstructing the
flow of relief to the country.
Suman Prasad Sharma, the Nepali finance secretary, on Saturday denied charges
made by NGOs and top international officials that the government was levying import

taxes on aid or had blocked consignments.

According to reports in local media, hundreds of tons of vital supplies have been
stopped at the Indian border.
One report quoted a local customs official at the frontier saying he had no orders to
allow the relief through untaxed.
On Friday, Nepal was reported to have exempted only tarpaulins and tents from import
taxes, prompting UN resident representative Jamie McGoldrick to warn the
government to loosen customs restrictions to deal with the increasing flow of relief
material.
They should not be using peacetime customs methodology, he told Reuters news
agency.
Sharma, the bureaucrat, said the charges were unfounded.
We havent sent back anything, and theres no duty to pay on anything. These
charges are completely irresponsible and I refute them, Sharma said.
The death toll in the disaster has now reached 6,900, with more than 15,000 injured.
Hundreds of thousands of homeless, including many injured, have yet to be reached.
However, it is increasingly clear that, as part of a broader effort to centralise the relief
effort, police are stopping trucks loaded with supplies by private well-wishers headed
to badly hit areas.
Earlier this week, with international aid agencies facing massive logistic and
bureaucratic difficulties, these small-scale local initiatives were reaching distant
villages first.
They are not suffering so they do not care. They are just out to get the foreign money
for themselves, said Rashmita Shastra, a healthworker in a village in
Sindhulpalchowk district, 50 miles from Kathmandu, which had been due to receive a
shipment of aid that was eventually blocked by authorities because it was unofficial.
The village, where seven people died and which has been almost entirely destroyed,
has not yet been visited by any government official or politician, though one aid
agency managed to distribute some tarpaulins and rice late last week.
Even villagers in accessible locations beside roads only 30 miles from Kathmandu told
The Observer they had yet to be contacted.

Nepalese soldiers load relief aid from residents of Sikkim, India, at Kakarvitta on Saturday.
Photograph: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds of helicopter flights have also been paid for by private individuals, religious
foundations or businesses. It is unclear whether these will be allowed to continue.
Officials said private initiatives would be permitted if they were coordinated with local
administrators.
Aanand Mishra, who launched a civil society and business initiative called Operation
Relief Nepal immediately after the earthquake, said a new directive from the
government ordering all money from overseas transferred into accounts opened after
the disaster to be paid into the governments own relief fund, had badly hit aid
deliveries.
His organisation, backed by the Nepalese federation of chambers of commerce, had
raised $50,000 (33,000), which had already been spent on assistance.
We could raise so much more but no one overseas wants to just transfer money to
the government, so none of my foreign friends can help, Mishra said.
Officials have also been criticised for failing to prepare for the crisis or to properly
coordinate aid in its aftermath. Protocol and bureaucratic turf fights have weakened
the response, while Sushil Koirala, the 75-year-old prime minister, appears to be
unable to cut through the administrative chaos.
Koralia was heckled by angry crowds in the streets of Kathmandu last week amid
mounting anger across the country.
More than 130,000 houses were destroyed in the quake, according to the UN

humanitarian office.
Almost nothing is known about the situation in the badly hit Langtang area, where
some western trekkers are thought to be trapped.
Udda Prasad Batwai, the most senior local official in Langtang, said that 250 people
are missing, including 100 foreigners.
Whatever we have, we are distributing. We are all working together, local NGOs,
international NGOs and the administration. But there are lot of people who we cant
get to with our resources so small, Batwai said.
The UN has estimated the quake affected 8.1 million people, more than a quarter of
Nepals population of 27.8 million.
Many mountain roads, often treacherous at the best of times, remain blocked by
landslides, making it extremely difficult for supply trucks to get to the higher Himalayan
foothills.
We definitely need more helicopters, Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the UNs
World Food Program, said.
Krishan Gyawali, top official of Sindhupalchowk district, said at least 300 people were
still stranded at Tatopani, a bazaar town on Nepals border with Tibet.
Gyawali said the district had only received very little relief assistance from the central
government.
We havent been able to reach to every place in the district. People are angry with us
but what can we do, whatever is possible we are doing our best, he said.
However, police spokesman Kamal Jung Bam said that distribution of relief was now
of significantly larger scale than earlier in the week.
Helicopters and vehicles have been ferrying relief packages from Kathmandu towards
many parts of the country, especially to the most affected villages, he said.
US military aircraft and personnel were to arrive in Kathmandu on Saturday to help in
relief operations. One of their tasks would be to deal with the growing piles of aid
material.
Some of the relief material for survivors was being held up at the countrys only
international airport because of customs bottlenecks, the United Nations said on
Saturday.
Nepali government officials have said efforts to step up the pace of delivery of relief
material to remote areas were frustrated by a shortage of supply trucks and drivers,
many of whom had returned to their villages to help their families.
Our granaries are full and we have ample food stock, but we are not able to transport
supplies at a faster pace, said Shrimani Raj Khanal, a manager at the Nepal Food
Corp.

Army helicopters have air-dropped instant noodles and biscuits to remote communities
but people need rice and other ingredients to cook a proper meal, he said.
Posted by Thavam