Minister Khand pledges budget hike for differently abled

By A Staff Reporter 

Kathmandu, July 24 : Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand has pledged to increase the amount of budget allocated for people living with disabilities. 

Addressing a programme organised here on Saturday to hand over vehicles and disability assistive equipment used during disasters, Minister Khand said the government was serious in ensuring that the people living with disabilities live a dignified life. 

He mentioned that the government has recently decided to give some monthly allowance to disabled people with an aim of supporting their lives. 

“Though the amount is insufficient for the differently-abled people, it was allocated according to the budget,” he added. 

Stating that the newly constructed government offices were still not disabled friendly, the minister said the government had recently instructed to make all the government office disabled-friendly. 

He explained that the government has been considering formulating disabled-friendly policies and making infrastructure disabled-friendly. 

The efforts should be made from an early age to bring those who are financially and physically weak at the equal level of others, he added. 

He further claimed that the government would provide aid to build new building of the National Disabled Fund. During the programme, Minister Khand also directed the Inspector General of Police Dheeraj Pratap Singh to investigate the recent incident of fire that broke out in the warehouse of National Disabled Fund and Social Welfare Council and bring out the truth.

IME Motors, the sole authorised distributor of Ashok Leyland commercial vehicle in Nepal, handed over eight units of mass casualty vehicles, equivalent to mobile hospital to National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) which is under Ministry of Home Affairs. 

Vehicles were delivered by IME Group Chairman and Senior Vice President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Chandra Prasad Dhakal.

Each mass casualty vehicle has six beds for patients, critical care facilities such as advance life support devices, portable ventilator, patient monitor, syringe pump, infusion pump, defibrillator, oxygen concentrator, ECG Machine, ultrasound machine and other infectious control instrument. 

The vehicle is also equipped with CCTV camera and can be monitored centrally. Chairman of IME Group Dhakal said this kind of fully equipped mass casualty vehicle is first of its kind in Nepal and will definitely help in treatment of the patient on site and mass transfer of patients from disaster site to nearby tertiary hospital.