Khotang, November 17: Local residents of Diktel Rupakot Majhuwagadhi Municipality-11 Bohoribot in Kharmi have established a disaster management fund from the money collected by playing Deusi bhailo. Locals of 60 houses belonging to Laliguras Toll Development Committee have established a disaster management fund with the collected sum of Rs. 102000.
Chairman of Toll Development Committee Dilkumar Rai informed that a fund of at least Rs. 2.5 millions have to raise in future. “No one has saved up for disaster, not everyone has money when disaster strikes, many families have suffered because they don’t have savings. We have established a disaster management fund so that this does not happen in the future. “Relief and compensation will be given based on the nature of the incident and the condition of the victim,” he said.
An amount of Rs.102,000 was collected when local residents spontaneously donated to the Deusi bhailo program during Tihar to establish a disaster fund. Gradually adding to that, President Rai has informed that the local residents from different parts of the country and abroad are also committed to support the people who were born in Bohoribot for employment, study and conducting various professions. A campaign to collect funds for the disaster management fund has been started by appointing local residents who are employed in different countries as coordinators. As part of this campaign, under the leadership of local Jay Kumar Rai, who recently arrived in Slovakia, Rs, 14,500 has been collected in the fund, informed the treasurer of the committee, Indrakala Rai.
Secretary of the committee Rajendra Magar informed that in order to increase the amount accumulated in the fund, it has been decided to give loans of up to Rs. 30,000.”A rule has been made that local residents who take loans from the disaster management fund must operate some kind of business that will increase their source of income. This will also give the local residents the opportunity to be self-sufficient”, said Secretary Magar, “If the loan is not paid within the specified time, we have made a rule to recover it with damages. It has been decided to give the loan after informing about everything in advance.”
Local residents of Bohoribot have been doing social work by collecting Rs 30 per month from each house. It is said that the money left over from spending on social work is deposited in the fund and given as a loan. “Now, we do not add Rs. 30 collected monthly to the disaster management fund, it is used for separate work”, he said, “Initially, we collected Rs. 10 per month. Now it has been increased to Rs 30 per month. A community building has also been built and operated from the funds collected in the same fund.
In Bohoribot village where nine houses of Magar and 51 houses of Rai families live, every feast and cultural program is done in mutual cooperation. The materials used in feast festival organized in village weddings, chhewar, pasni, gunyucholi and death have been purchased with the money collected by them.
