Koshi announces relief package for Sunsari incident victims

ITAHARI: The Koshi Province Government has announced a relief package for victims of the recent violence in Dewanganj Rural Municipality of Sunsari.

The province government has decided to provide Rs 200,000 to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to those injured as well as those whose homes, shops or other property were damaged in arson attacks.

Chief Minister Hikmar Kumar Karki made the announcement during an all-party meeting held in Biratnagar on Wednesday.

The meeting also adopted an eight-point resolution aimed at restoring social harmony and maintaining law and order in the province.

The participants of the meeting paid tribute to Om Prakash Mehta, who was killed in the incident, and extended condolences to his bereaved family. They also wished for the speedy recovery of the injured.

The meeting decided that political parties, social organizations and the administration would work to preserve social harmony and communal unity. It also decided to hold all-party and all-stakeholder meetings at the local level and implement programs to promote communal harmony.

To strengthen reconciliation at the community level, the provincial government has decided to work in coordination with local administrations to organize goodwill rallies and similar initiatives.

The meeting also decided that organizations representing all religious communities should issue a joint appeal requesting the public to maintain social harmony. It also called for heightened security vigilance against any undesirable activities that could originate from the border areas and urged the federal government to provide treatment support for the injured and relief assistance to the families of those killed.

The meeting also instructed the concerned District Administration Offices to coordinate with security agencies to strengthen security arrangements in the affected district and surrounding areas to prevent similar incidents from recurring.

Addressing the meeting, Chief Minister Karki urged all stakeholders to play their part in preserving social harmony and appealed to everyone to refrain from activities that could undermine communal peace during the sensitive period.

Rastriya Swatantra Party Koshi Province Chairperson Chandra Bahadur Rai, Nepali Congress Koshi Province President Uddhav Thapa, CPN-UML Koshi Province Chairperson Ghanshyam Khatiwada, representatives of various political parties, heads of provincial security agencies, and senior government officials, among others, attended the meeting.