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Govt withholds victims’ aid, proffers cash crunch excuse
KATHMANDU, NOV 16 - The government has withheld all assistance to the victims of Maoist atrocities except the relief amount being provided to the family members of deceased persons and treatment of the injured.
The decision to suspend five out of the seven types of relief programmes under the Ganesh Man Peace Campaign (GPC) was taken as the budget allocated for the current year proved to be insufficient.
According to a source at the Home Ministry, the Finance Ministry has delayed to release the necessary budget outlined by the Home Ministry. "Due to lack of budget, the rest of the relief programmes have been suspended unofficially," the source said.
"Payment of allowances to dependent family members, compensation for personal property losses, allowance to widows and replacement allowances have been held up indefinitely," the source added.
"We have repeatedly requested the Finance Ministry to release five million rupees but is has not materialised so far," said Sarad Chandra Poudel, under secretary at the Home Ministry.
The Finance Ministry, however, has pointed its finger at the procedures of spending. "So far as we know, no budget has reached the district level," a Finance Ministry source said, adding, "We will take a decision in this regard after the Home Ministry clarifies to us on the issue."
The government has been providing 750,000 rupees as relief assistance to the family members of every security personnel killed in action against the Maoists.
Family members of other people killed by Maoists and security forces are receiving 150,000 and 100,000 rupees respectively. This programme is also affected by budgetary constraints. Even a daily allowance of 100 rupees that was being provided to displaced people on daily basis has also been scrapped since last year.
Since the campaign was launched three years ago, 3.15 million rupees have been provided to the family members of persons killed by the Maoists while 500,000 rupees has been provided to family members of those killed by security forces.
According to Poudel, altogether 503 dependants are benefited with 10 to 22 thousand rupees under the aegis of the Campaign.
Compensation for lost property has also been postponed since the mid-July. The budget allocated for the current year was disbursed to 50 per cent of last year’s victims. "The entire budget was used up while compensating half of last year victims." According to Home Ministry source, out of 50 million rupees, 30 million was remarked for the compensation of personal property loss.
The budget allocated this year was far from enough to meet the growing demands, as it was the cease-fire period when the budget was worked out. Altogether 932 injured people have received treatment under the campaign. In the current year so far, Rs. 524,332 have been spent for the treatment of Maoist victims whereas the amount was Rs. 8.73 million last year.Posted on: 2003-11-15 08:36
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