Earthquake survivors in Kaule VDC, Chitwan, have demanded the local authorites to relocate them to a safe location.

Forty-three families in the VDC were rendered homeless by the April 25 earthquake of last year. The tremor and its aftershocks also left wide cracks on ther their farmlands.

Uttar Kumar Gurung, one of the earthquake survivors, said the entire settlement now face landslide risk.

“We have already notified the District Development Committee of our predicament. The settlement has to be relocated as soon as possible,” Gurung said.

For the earthquake survivors of Kaule, who have been living in temporary shelters for the past one year, the urgency to move to a safe area has become more stronger since the monsoon is only a few months away.

They have urged the authorities to make arrangements to shift the settlement, preferrably to Pani Tanki in Ramnagar where the local political parties have agreed to provide them with lands.

“Here, we no longer can grow crops in our farms. We have been working as daily wage workers to survive after the earthquake. We cannot live like this for ever,” Gurung said. Besides the 43 families in Kaule, 12 earthquake-displaced families in Lothar VDC have also made a relocation demand before the monsoon.

Lothar resident Madilal Chepang said although the VDC secretary had pledged

to move them to a safe place following the landslide triggered by monsoon rains last year, nothing has been done so far.

“We will not survive should another landslide strike our settlement,” Chepang said.