Many ethnic Thami people, who had been living in the northern region of Dolakha, have found their home in Charikot, the district headquarters, after they were forced to leave their landslide-prone settlements following the 2015 April earthquake.

Around 300 Thami families have settled at Raut, Charikot, and already they have become part of the community.

 Birkha Bahadur Thami and his family moved to Charikot from Aalampu VDC after their settlement was threatened by landslides. He said moving out was their only option.

“There were landslides all around and our settlement had develeoped several cracks. It was too dangerous to live there,” said Birkha Bahadur.

Besides threat from landslides, the migration was also prompted by water scarcity in northern Dolakha. After the water sources in the region, even those people who had decided to stay back started moving out.

Birkha Bahadur, who is also a former chairman of Aalampu VDC, said the number of families migrating to Charikot was increasing.

“Only those families who cannot afford to buy land here are the ones staying back,” he said.

Birkha Bahadur added that the government has not taken any initiative to relocate the families who are unable to leave the landslide-threatened settlements.

Most of the Thami people who have migrated to Charikot work in construction to support their families. Foreign employment is also a major source of income for some of them.

These new settlers have already started contributing to the economy of Raut, which is based on vegetable farming. Many Thami people can be seen working at local vegetable farms these days.

“They are helping us in farms right now. We know that many of them work in constructions, so we plan to take their assistance in that area as well,” said Arjun Thapa.

Housing aid deal signed in 6 VDCs

Dolakha: An agreement has been reached with survivors of the earthquake of April 25, 2015 of six VDCs in the district to provide them with house grants. As per the agreement, quake survivors of Gauri Shankar, Laduk, Orang, Babare, Lapilang and Sahare will be given the grant amount announced for quake victims to rebuild their damaged house, said Bikram Karki, information officer of the District Development Committee, Dolakha. The signing of tripartite agreement with quake victims has been completed in six VDCs out of the total 46 VDCs and two municipalities, he said, adding that the process is in the final state in other remaining VDCs and municipalities.

Construction of govtbuildings delayed

GORKHA: The reconstruction of earthquake-damaged government buildings at the Gorkha district headquarters has not started yet. The government had long announced to reconstruct seven quake-ravaged government buildings, one official said, adding that none of the building has seen any work so far. The Urban Development and Building Division Office (UDBDO) has not event invited tenders to begin the construction process of these government buildings. Roshan Shrestha, chief of the UDBDO, said they could not start the reconstruction work of the government office buildings because of frequent transfer of the office chiefs.