Kathmandu, January 6

The Central Disaster Relief Committee headed by home minister has issued Disaster Victim Rescue and Relief Standards (Sixth Amendment), 2017 to carry out rescue and relief operation in an effective manner.

The standards require District Natural Disaster Relief Committee to provide a cash relief of Rs 100,000 to the grieving family of each victim killed in the disaster. Similarly, it has provided for a provision of Rs 10,000 immediately after disaster for each household that has lost its home or food supplies.

As per the standards, the Ministry of Labour and Employment shall, on the recommendation of the DNDRC, send any of the members of disaster victim family abroad for employment taking into consideration the concerned candidate’s age and health condition if he/she is desirous of it.

“The concerned DNDRC shall make arrangement of camp for affected families or persons in a safer place as required. If it deems necessary to provide additional financial support to the affected households, the DNDRC shall maintain and send its records to the Ministry of Home Affairs,” it reads.

If a family is displaced and needs to be relocated somewhere else due to damage of home fully or partially, the government may provide such family with a financial assistance of up to Rs 100,000. According to the standards, the government shall bear the cost incurred for treatment of the injured persons in government hospitals and provide Rs 1,000 as transport allowance.

The government shall provide timber to the disaster-hit family for rehabilitation at a subsidised rate through the district-based agency prescribed by the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation.

Only the persons or families affected by earthquake, flood, landslide, hailstorm, windstorm, lightning, cold wave, snowfall, and road traffic and aircraft accident and boat capsize caused by adverse weather condition shall be entitled to the relief pursuant to this law.

According to Nepal Disaster Report, 2015 published by the MoHA, over 7,000 people lost their lives, over 1.4 million were injured and approximately 23 million rendered homeless as a result of disasters between 2005 and 2015. Overall, more than 1.5 billion people were affected by disasters in various ways. Women, children and people in vulnerable situations were disproportionately affected. The total economic loss was more than $1.3 trillion. Disasters significantly impede progress towards sustainable development, it said.

“Nepal is facing the wrath of natural and human induced disasters with greater frequency and intensity. It is one of the countries most vulnerable to various types of disasters. Disasters are so penetrative in every geographic and societal framework that they are constantly under threat of a multitude of natural disasters,” it said.