A significant amount has been accumulated in the reserve fund to deal with natural calamities in the country. The Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund currently has 2.34 billion rupees, while the fund under the Ministry of Home Affairs has 1.17 billion rupees. Finance Minister Dr. Dr. Swarnim Wagle has informed.
Finance Minister Wagle has said that the government is committed to face the natural calamities in the country and will not allow shortage of resources. After the meeting of the top leaders of major political parties held at Singh Darbar, he informed about rescue, relief and reconstruction plans and said that the rescue work of Nepali citizens and foreign tourists who disappeared and got stranded due to floods, landslides and inundation has been accelerated.
He said that despite the geographical and weather adversities, rescue operations are currently being carried out by 22 helicopters. In addition, financial assistance worth about 25 billion rupees has been ensured in coordination with the World Bank soon after the incident. Pledges of support have also been received from China, India, Japan, the Asian Development Bank and the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC).
In the budget of the current financial year, 10 billion rupees have been allocated for disaster management. Finance Minister Wagle has pointed out the need to conduct a reconstruction campaign based on scientific facts, just like the reconstruction after the 2072 earthquake. It is expected that there will be no shortage of resources for immediate relief and rescue and effective reconstruction work will proceed in the future.
