Kathmandu, July 7 -- On Monday morning, staff at the Nepal Red Cross holding centre in Banepa, Kavrepalanchok, told displaced squatters that the canteen would serve its last meal that day.

"From tomorrow, the canteen will be closed. You'll have to make your own arrangements," residents recalled being told.

The announcement has left hundreds of families, already uprooted by the government's riverbank clearance drive, facing fresh uncertainty over where they will live and how they will feed themselves.

When residents asked why the meals were ending, canteen staff said they had only been funded to provide food until July 3 but had continued serving meals for several more days out of sympathy.

"We were ordered to stop on Friday. We only h...