Pithoragarh: Over a year after 13 Nepalese citizens were killed in a massive landslide that swamped the Mangti Ghatiyabagad area in Pithoragarh on August 14 last year, none of the victims’ kin has got any compensation yet.Even as relatives of the 21 Indians who died in the same accident have received their due compensation of Rs 4 lakh each, the matter regarding paying relief money to the Nepalese who were working as labourers in the area, has been in a limbo. All disaster victims are eligible for compensation of around Rs 4 lakh. The district administration had, last year, written to the state government seeking clarity on whether compensation is to be paid to the Nepalese.At the time of the disaster, district magistrate (DM) C Ravishankar had said that guidelines of the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) mentioned the word “victim” but didn’t specify if the victim had to be Indian in order to enable his family to receive compensation. Ravishankar had said that he would take the matter to higher authorities and if the SDRF was unable to arrange for compensation, he would get the funds from some other source.When queried by TOI about the issue, the DM said, “After the incident, we had asked every contractor to make a register of Nepalese workers, with their citizen identities. We had also sent information about the victims to the Nepal government to identify them. We will pursue the matter and send a reminder to the state government again.”Meanwhile, Ganesh Singh Saund, chairman of the organisation Pravasi Kalyankari Sangathan said that the state government should consider this matter on humanitarian grounds and give compensation to Nepalese citizens as well. “Both Indian and Nepalese citizens were killed in the same accident, so discrimination in this regard is not right,” he added.The devastating landslide had killed 34 persons, including 13 Nepalese and 21 Indian citizens. Rescue teams had recovered nine bodies while the others were reported missing. Later, a magisterial enquiry was conducted and all 25 persons were declared dead.

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