Cabinet declares Madhes Province as disaster-hit zone

Kathmandu, July 24: The government has declared the Madhes Province as a disaster-hit zone.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers held Wednesday made this decision, government Spokesperson and Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung shared on Thursday organizing a news conference.  As decided, the Madhes Province was declared the disaster-affected area for three months from the date the notice is published in the Nepal Gazette.     

Minister Gurung said Madhes is reeling under crises due to drought. This decision was taken to immediately address the problems."     

By making this announcement, he said, the government is focused to ensure water supply in every household and seek solutions to the problems created in the people's livelihood.     

On Tuesday, the Madhes Province Government had decided to recommend federal government that the province be declared a crisis-hit region.     

Minister Gurung argued that the nation's prosperity remains incomplete without the prosperity in Madhes and added that education, health and development infrastructures were needed in Madhes.     

He viewed that prosperity should be gained by working along with environmental conservation.     

Likewise, the cabinet meeting decided to fix the district headquarters of Rukum Purva for Rukumkot, the wards no. 5 and 6 of Sisne Rural Municipality.     

Similarly, the cabinet meeting approved the visit of Province Chief of Koshi Province, Parshuram Khapung, for his participation in the Fourth Convention of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, Malaysia, to be held on August 3 in Malaysia.     

The cabinet meeting also approved the visit of Secretary Phanindra Gautam and four other officials for their participation in the Asia-Pacific Joint Group Face-to-Face Meeting under the International Cooperation Review Group of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to be held on September 3-4 in Macau, China.     

Furthermore, the cabinet meeting approved the visits of other secretaries for their participation in different international events.     

Minister Gurung said that the cabinet meeting decided to accept $100 million in loan to be received for Nepal's power grid and distribution project from the OPEC Fund for International Development     

The cabinet meeting allowed the Marchabari Rural Municipality in Rupandehi to use the government land of nine bigha located at the then Silautiya VDC-6 for the construction of an administrative building and Aurahi Municipality in Mahottari district is allowed to use land for the construction of an administrative building at the then Aurahi VDC-5.     

Likewise, some hydropower projects have been allowed to use the land of national forests for project advancement.(RSS)