Kathmandu, June 20
Internal affairs and law ministers of provincial governments have stressed the need for collective efforts to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic. There should be preparedness to avert any untoward incident caused by the infection, they said.
The internal affairs and law ministers of the provinces said this at a coordination meeting involving Home Minister Khagaraj Adhikari and ministers of internal affairs and law today.
At the meeting Minister of Internal Affairs and Law of Province 1 Hikmat Karki complained that the province government was not aware of rescue and relief efforts undertaken by the federal government. As a result, the provincial government purchased equipment and materials to control the virus.
"The provincial government would not have purchased these materials if it had been informed that the federal government was distributing them," he said.
There should be coordination between the provincial and the federal government in this regard, he said.
At the meeting, ministers of Internal Affairs and Law of Province 2, Bagmati, Lumbini, Karnali, and Sudurpaschim, Gyanendra Kumar Yadav, Keshab Raj Pandey, Chet Narayan Acharya, Sita Kumari Nepali and Purna Joshi respectively agreed with the opinion of minister Karki in this regard.
"We could do quite a lot to control the virus if the governments of all the levels join hands. The home ministry had coordinated in this regard. This will take place," said Minister of Province 2 Yadav.
Minister of Bagmati, Pandey, stressed the need to stem the disasters in the first place instead of speeding up rescue operations.
Stating that many villages sharing border with neighbouring India could be flooded due to roads constructed rampantly by India, Minister of Lumbini, Acharya, urged Home Minister Adhikari to coordinate in this regard. He stressed the need for the federal government to provide resources to control disasters.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 21, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
