60 high-risk settlements to be shifted

An earthquake victim fills water from a tap near the debris of a collapsed house at Barpak village at the epicenter of the April 25 earthquake in Gorkha district, Nepal, on Thursday.

A sub-committee of the Parliament on Friday recommended immediate shifting of 60 high-risk settlements in Sindhupalchowk district.

The sub-committee was deputed by the Parliament’s high-level Disaster Management, Monitoring and Directive Special Committee to visit Sindhupalchowk, one of the hardest hits districts in the recent earthquake and its aftershocks.

It said those 60 communities need to be resettled to a safer place by the end of the Nepali month of Jestha (mid-June this year).

Twice affected

Sindhupalchowk was twice affected—– first by the earthquake or mainshock of April 25 (of 7.9 magnitude) and then by the aftershock of May 12 (7.4 magnitude) with its epicentre occurring between the district and Dolakha, another hardest-hit district.

Meanwhile, Nepal Police said the combined death toll until Friday reached 8,635, with 21,845 injured. According to government and the U.N., more than 8.1 million were affected by the earthquake and its aftermath. The government also said over 530,000 houses were destroyed and over 300,000 damaged.

Similarly, 20,000 classrooms in 32 affected districts were also damaged.

Department of Mines and Geology commissioned 18 groups of geologists to study the risk of landslides in the six badly-affected districts in the earthquake, government news agency, Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) reported. They have been asked to submit their report in three days.