KATHMANDU, Jan. 13: Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr. Shankar Sharma has said that HMG has sanctioned Rs 10 million for reconstruction and repair work at the headquarters of Jumla district.

At a Face to Face programme organised by the Reporters’ Club of Nepal here today, he said that a bank would soon be set up at Jumla and the reconstruction work would be intensified.

Vice-chairman Sharma said that HMG would soon send a Chief District Officer and a Land Revenue Officer to the district.

A committee headed by the HMG chief secretary had already been constituted and there would be no paucity of funds to carry out the reconstruction work, he added.

Dr. Sharma said that all the government offices there barring the bank had started functioning smoothly.

Chairman of the Remote Region Development Committee of the National Assembly, Gaura Koirala, said that during a recent visit to Jumla by committee members including herself, it was found that the government had given only assurances and it was not only the local people but also security personnel and government employees also who had not received any relief.

Looking at the plight of the people, the security personnel and employees at Jumla district headquarters, anyone would feel like crying, she added.

Stating that because of the excessive cold, the security personnel were under compulsion to dig underground tunnels and stay there, MP Koirala said there was an acute shortage of medicines and foodgrain and the local people were becoming victims of untimely death and starvation.

MP Tilak Nyaupane said that the hands and legs of the security personnel had swollen, and economic activity was at a standstill because the bank had not resumed transactions. Club chairman Rishi Dhamala presided over the programme.