Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala was heckled today at a relief camp.
Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala was heckled today at a Kathmandu relief camp as angry survivors of Saturday's
devastating earthquake demanded that relief coming in from foreign countries be made available to them.
A brief speech in Nepali by the 75-year-old Prime Minister, who wore a mask, was interrupted by angry young man who asked, why no foreign aid had reached the camp yet.
Soon others, all forced to camp in make-shift tents for four nights since the earthquake, began to shout, forcing the Prime Minister to leave the relief camp.
Mr Koirala did not answer NDTV's questions, but his foreign affairs advisor Dinesh Bhattarai said, "The challenge is to take the relief material to the affected areas. We have constituted committees and they are working very hard to reach areas which are inaccessible."
Officials have conceded that they did make mistakes in their initial response to the disaster, leaving
many stranded in remote villages waiting for aid and relief.
Four days after the earthquake struck Nepal, killing more than 5000 people, Nepalese riot police had to battle to contain the anger among survivors today as over 200 people protested outside the parliament in Kathmandu, demanding that the government increase the number of buses going to the interior hills and improve distribution of aid.
The government has yet to fully assess the devastation wrought by Saturday's 7.9 magnitude quake, unable to reach many mountainous areas despite aid supplies and personnel pouring in from around the world.
There are massive bottlenecks at Kathmandu's single international airport, which is ill-equipped to handle the pressure of a disaster of this magnitude. The airport has only one runway and limited parking space for aircraft, which has hampered the speed at which relief can land in Nepal.
Many remote areas, which are are badly hit and cut off, are accessible only by helicopters. Chopper operations have been intermittently affected by bad weather.
Rescue helicopters have also been unable to land in some of remoter mountainous areas. Shambhu Khatri, a technician on board one of the helicopters, said entire hillsides have collapsed in parts of the worst-hit Gorkha district, burying settlements, and access is almost impossible.