"Nobody has come to give us relief materials," says Dhana Shrestha, who owns a home in the heart of Kathmandu but has been living inside a tent for two days. "We have heard and read news that so much of foreign aid is pouring here," a visibly angry Shrestha adds. "If the Government cannot provide the materials, why it is being called the Government?"
At Tudikhel park, inside a green tent, Niranjan Mishra, 43, is playing cards with six friends. His wife and children pray quietly for the aftershocks to stop. They have been there since Saturday. "I am scared, I cannot go back to my flat, people are saying the earthquake will occur again," Mishra says. He hails from southeast Nepal and is getting constant calls from his parents to go back to their home. It's safer, they tell him.
"See, it's very tough for us," he says, holding out empty water bottles. "No one has come to ask about our conditions."
Watch: Drone view of Nepal quake damage
Kathmandu's district chief administrator, Ek Narayan Aryal, said tents and water were being handed out at 10 locations in Kathmandu, but aftershocks were leaving everyone jittery.
Nepal's Chief Secretary, Leela Mani Poudyal, said: "We have been dealing with fresh challenges as our capacity has not been able to meet the overwhelming demands."
Roads leading out of Kathmandu are jammed with people, some with babies, trying to climb on to buses or hitch a ride on board cars and trucks to the plains. Huge queues have formed at the city's Tribhuvan International Airport, with tourists and residents desperate to get a flight out.
"I'm willing even to sell the gold I'm wearing to buy a ticket, but there is nothing available," said Rama Bahadur, an Indian woman who works in Nepal's capital.
Asian disaster politics swing into action
Wedged between China and India, landlocked Nepal watched rescuers and offers of help pour in.
India launched Operation Friendship, deploying 13 aircraft and more than 500 rescuers as well as water, food, equipment and medical supplies. China has sent 62 rescuers plus blankets, tents and generators and announced plans to send four planes and an additional 170 soldiers. Pakistan has also sent four cargo planes full of supplies, including concrete cutters and sniffer dogs.
It represents a subtle brand of disaster politics, a curious but understandable focus on Nepal, one of the poorest nations in its region but a pocket of strategic importance for powerful neighbours jockeying for position. Diplomats in Nepal's neighbours deny any rivalry in aid efforts.
Nepal's population of 27 million has traditionally fallen under India's economic and political influence. But recent years have seen Nepal forge closer ties with China as a counterweight, and the Nepal Government has assured Beijing that it will not tolerate any anti-China political activism by Tibetans in Nepal. China also is aiming to "shoulder more international responsibilities and duties" as its economy and global profile increases, said Wang Lian, an expert on South Asian affairs at Peking University.
Pakistan views its neighbour as a supportive but independent voice in the region, while India feels it needs to keep Nepal on its side as China boosts its involvement there, according to Pakistani defence analyst Talat Masood.
Nepal latest
Aussies offered flights out
Australians stranded in Nepal will be offered military flights out of the country. Consular officials have contacted more than 1150 Australians in Nepal who are safe and well. Melbourne woman Renu Fotedar died after an avalanche at the Mt Everest base camp.
Relief for rural areas
Army troops are loading food into a storage room at the district headquarters in Gorkha, the epicentre of the earthquake. District official Surya Mohan Adhikari says 90 per cent of rural people have been affected and landslides and bad weather is making it difficult for helicopters to land.
Businesses asked to open
A government official says business owners are being asked to open their shops amid anxiety about dwindling food and medical supplies. Naindra Prasad Upadhaya, an official at the Commerce and Supplies Ministry, says the Government will pick up food and supplies directly from factories and distribute them free in areas where necessary.
- Independent, AP
