Law Gap Hinders Disaster Aid: Stakeholders

Stakeholders have said there was a lack of laws to exchange assistants at province levels during disasters. Although there are some laws and regulations at the centre, they do not adequately mandate to advance works during disasters, it is shared.

Stressing the need for establishing an inter-provincial joint emergency fund to coordinate and cooperate for disaster preparedness, search and rescue efforts, they said the role of the centre is expected for the work.

They were speaking at an event organised here on Saturday.

Krishna Gaire, under-secretary of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management's National Integrated Information Management System informed that the local level has been endowed with the explicit authority during the disaster time.

He further said that the disaster management has also been included in the concurrent authority of all three tiers of the government.

Mentioning that the local level manages emergency responses during the disaster, he said the provincial and federal levels can work together to deal with disaster when local level alone cannot respond to such events.

“Various assistance can be poured in during a disaster to tackle it. But legally, there are no provisions in place to institute an integrated fund,” he said.

Similarly, mentioning that there is a high risk of disasters in the hilly areas, Yam Bahadur Kunwar, under-secretary of the Ministry of Home of Lumbini Province, said there is inconvenience for the disaster management council in the province to coordinate rescue and relief works. It would be easier to work if there is a legal system for the inter-provincial coordination council, he mentioned.