Nepal to give $1,000 to each family of quake victims

Nepal’s government will be giving out 100,000 rupees ($1,000) to families of each of those killed in Saturday’s earthquake, and another 40,000 rupees ($400) for funeral costs, according to the state-run Radio Nepal.

Nepal Rastriya Bank, the central bank, has ordered all private banks to open for at least a few hours Friday as well as over the weekend to meet the demand.

The latest death toll figure stands at 6,259 in Nepal alone, plus over 100 elsewhere in the region.

Meanwhile, in Kathmandu, most of the people who were sleeping outside their homes for fear of aftershocks have moved back indoors. There were only a few dozen tents left at the Tudikhel grounds in the heart of Kathmandu, with fewer than a thousand people still there.

The area was crowded with more than 30,000 people in the first days after the quake hit.

The UN humanitarian office says about 24,000 people are living in 13 camps in Kathmandu. More than 130,000 houses are reportedly destroyed.

According to the UN, Saturday’s earthquake has displaced about 2.8 million Nepalese. Over 70,000 homes are believed to be destroyed and another 530,000 damaged in 39 out of the country’s 75 districts.

The UN humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, was in Nepal for a three-day visit to meet victims and local leaders. She plans to visit areas outside the Kathmandu Valley, according to the deputy spokesman for the UN secretary-general, Farhan Haq.

The main challenges are the “inaccessibility of some remote areas, the lack of helicopters, poor communication and security concerns.”

The UN was also concerned with the food shortages in the wake of the earthquake. Farmers who miss the planting season that is expected to start late May will be unable to harvest rice — the country’s staple food — again until late 2016.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says this, together with likely losses of food stocks and wheat and maize harvests, would severely limit food supplies and incomes in the South Asian country, where around two-thirds of people rely on agriculture for their livelihood.

Relief aid group Oxfam says congestion at Kathmandu airport, blocked roads, fuel shortages and difficult terrain are slowing down the pace of aid delivery.

The group says it is looking at ways to transport essential goods overland from India. It says challenges include getting aid to remote mountain villages, many of which are connected to the outside world by a single dirt road that may now be blocked by landslides.

Heavy rainfall was also a problem.