Sumitra Devi Patel of Debahi Gonahi-5 of Rautahat district expressed her grievances to CPN-UML senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal that her family has been living under a makeshift shelter near a pond after her house was swept away by the recent colossal floods.

Former Prime Minister Nepal had reached his home district Rautahat to canvass votes for the third phase of local level elections slated for September 18 in Province 2.

Soon after Nepal began his speech, a group of flood-affected women said, “We don’t want speech, we want relief,” adding, “We have not received succour yet; no one has paid proper attention to us.” “We are surviving our life by eating beaten rice and noodles,” they said.

Sumitra, who has four members in her family, said that they have not got a single penny in relief till now.

“When I saw a line of vehicles I thought that relief materials are being brought to the village, but later I came to know that there was UML leaders instead of relief materials,” she said.

“Floods swept away all our food products. We are facing difficulties to survive our life,” she bemoaned.

Jayamal Thakur has 18 members in her family. Thakur said that her family was forced to take shelter in the neighbour’s house after the floods washed away her house.

“Relief materials are distributed to those who have good network with political leaders,” she said. “Who will provide us succour?” she questioned.

After the massive floods swept away her house, Budhiya Devi Patel with nine family members has been taking shelter in a local temple. Patel said that she has not received any relief materials in cash or kind yet.

“We have heard that the relief materials have reached the village, but we have not received any of it yet,” she said. “No one has distributed relief materials in our village,” she lamented.

After the Parliamentary Committee on International Relation and Human Rights directed government to adopt one-door policy while distributing relief, most of the flood-affected people in the village have not received relief materials yet, even though weeks have passed since the floods inundated numerous villages in the district.