Nepal Compensation Office Requires Flood Victims to Personally Confirm Their Own Deaths
A new form insists that the deceased appear with valid identification before their families can receive a single rupee.
The compensation office has introduced Form 14-D, which requires any person swept away in the recent floods to appear in person, present two forms of identification, and sign an affidavit affirming that they are, in fact, deceased.
"We simply cannot process a death we haven't verified firsthand," said a clerk who asked not to be named, stamping a folder marked PENDING for the ninth consecutive month. "The policy is very clear on this. The applicant must be present."
Families have reported traveling to regional offices only to be told that the line for the deceased is a separate line from the line for the living, and that no one has yet been assigned to staff it. One office reportedly keeps a waiting room with a single chair, reserved for the deceased, which has remained empty since the form was introduced.
A newly formed Office of Posthumous Verification is said to be reviewing the backlog, though its first act was to schedule a meeting to determine when it might next meet. Officials say a revised form is in development, though it will still require a signature.