Relief goods held up at customs: UN

Kathmandu, May 2

Bureaucracy at the Kathmandu airport was holding up vital relief supplies for survivors of the earthquake in Nepal on Saturday as the death toll from the disaster passed 7,000.

UN Resident Representative Jamie McGoldrick said the government must loosen customs restrictions to deal with the increasing flow of relief material and avoid bottlenecks. Material was piling up at the Kathmandu airport instead of being ferried out to victims, McGoldrick said.

“They should not be using peacetime customs methodology,” he said. Instead, he argued, all relief material should get a blanket exemption from checks on arrival.

Nepal exempted tarpaulins and tents from import taxes on Friday but a home ministry spokesman, Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, said all goods coming in from overseas had to be inspected. “This is something we need to do,” he said. Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat on Friday had appealed to international donors to send tents, tarpaulins and basic food supplies and said some of the items received were of no use.

“We have received things such as tuna fish and mayonnaise. What good are those things for us? We need grains, salt and sugar,” he told reporters.

US military aircraft and personnel due to arrive on Saturday to help ferry relief supplies to stricken areas outside the capital were delayed and tentatively scheduled to arrive on Sunday, a US Marines spokeswoman said.

US Marine Brigadier General Paul Kennedy said six military aircraft, including two helicopters, were to arrive, accompanied by 100 Marines and lifting equipment. “What you don’t want to do is build up a mountain of supplies,” blocking space for planes or more supplies, Kennedy said.

Nepali government officials have said efforts to step up the pace of delivery of relief material to remote areas were also frustrated by a shortage of supply trucks and drivers, many of whom had returned to their villages to help their families. “Our granaries are full and we have ample food stock, but we are not able to transport supplies at a faster pace,” said Shrimani Raj Khanal, a manager at the Nepal Food Corp. — Reuters

Grains, salt, sugar needed

We have received things such as tuna fish and mayonnaise. What good are those things for us? We need grains, salt and sugar. — Ram Sharan Mahat, finance minister, Nepal

More survivors unlikely

We are trying our best in rescue and relief work but now I don’t think that there is any possibility of survivors under the rubble. — Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, spokesman, Nepal home ministry

Snapshots

CRPF to adopt village 

patna: The CRPF has decided to adopt Karikat village near Birganj in quake-hit Nepal to provide people immediate relief and help in its reconstruction, Arun Kumar, Inspector General of CRPF, Bihar and Jharkhand, said on Saturday. PTI

Demand for more choppers 

Kathmandu: Nepal has requested China, the US and Britain to send more helicopters for assistance in the relief and rescue operations in the country, an official said on Saturday. PTI

Heavy animal toll 

Kathmandu: Thousands of animals —  injured or left to fend for themselves — are also struggling to cope with the aftermath of the calamity in Nepal. “Many have sustained injuries after being trapped in collapsed buildings or hit by falling debris, thousands of animals have been crushed to death or buried alive in the disaster,” said NGO Humane Society International. IANS