KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has issued a circular to all 75 district development committees and 191 municipal bodies, including Kathmandu Metropolitan City, to control and prevent the incidents of human trafficking as per the law. It has also asked the DDCs to give necessary directives to all village development committees regarding the issue and to act, in coordination with the concerned chief district officers, tough on human trafficking . The initiative comes after the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare wrote to MoFALD to mobilise all its local bodies to tackle with human trafficking in the post-disaster situation. Earlier, Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal had directed in writing to MoHA Secretary Surya Prasad Silwal and MoWCSW Secretary Dhan Bahadur Tamang to make an all-out effort to control human trafficking and initiate legal action against the culprits in the strongest form. “When the attention of all government bodies is focused on the disaster management, persons or groups with criminal mindset are more likely to capitalise on the post-disaster situation,” reads Chief Secretary Paudyal’s letter to secretaries Silwal and Tamang.