People who claimed to be the victims of the August floods have padlocked the ward offices in Gulariya Municipality for the past three days, saying that they have been deprived of government relief. 

Omkar Baniya, a local from Khairapur, said that they were compelled to take such a step after being removed from the list of flood-affected families.

The agitating locals had taken out a protest rally on Tuesday and padlocked the ward offices. They blamed the local authorities for not providing relief to the genuine flood victims. Krishna Adhikari of Khairapur claimed the government provided relief materials to the “fake” flood victims while denying the real victims of the relief. He also complained about discrimination during the distribution of relief in the presence of the people’s representatives.  

Mayor Muktinath Yadav, however, said that relief materials had been distributed only to the genuine flood victims. 

Complaints have been filed against about 150 “fake victims” at the district administration office. Chief District Officer Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said the accused people had been denied relief, adding that an investigation was underway.