Thousands of poor workers from Odisha are stranded in earthquake-devastated Nepal having little money in hand, according to Sudhansu Sekhar Majhi, a young entrepreneur, who has returned to his home in Berhampur from Nepal.
Mr Sudhansu has been in Kathmandu for the past 14 years and owned an outsourcing agency in Kathmandu. After the earthquake he returned to Odisha via Kolkata along with his wife and a 10-month-old daughter. Speaking to The Hindu , Mr Sudhansu said most of the poor labourers stranded in Nepal were from Kendrapara and Jajpur districts. “None of them have the capacity to buy bus or plane tickets to return back home and are also facing shortage of money to buy food,” he added. “We had the financial capacity to fly back home which these labourers do not have. Moreover due to support of staff of Indian Airlines, who took health condition of my child into consideration, we have reached home,” he said. According to him food was still scarce. Biscuit and water have become staple food for all in Kathmandu and most people are still in panic and are reluctant to return back because of continuing tremors.
According to him it would be hard for Nepal government to take up large-scale rescue and restoration work on its own after the earthquake. “I would hope India would take the lead in restoring Nepal to its past glory. But the utilization of help being provided by India also needs proper management as I have seen large scale mismanagement in rescue operations and distribution of relief after the earthquake,” he said.
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Mr Sudhansu’s company has also incurred much loss because of the earthquake. According to him his insurance policy did not have earthquake cover, which means it would be hard for him to get any compensation from insurance companies. As people in Nepal had not expected such major earthquake to happen most infrastructure and firms did not have earthquake cover in their insurance. This would be a major problem for entrepreneurs of Nepal to rebuild their business.
Yet Mr Sudhansu desires to return to Kathmandu to restart his business firm. “I know inhabitants of Nepal are too sturdy and have faced fury of nature since generations. With help of India and other countries Nepal would surely jump back to its original grandeur,” he said.
Biscuit and water have become staple food for all in Kathmandu and most people are still in panic and are reluctant to return because of continuing tremors.