Kathmandu [Nepal], October 8 (ANI): Nepal's cabinet on Wednesday recommended promulgating an ordinance to amend existing laws and remove legal hurdles to declaring missing persons dead.
The cabinet meeting, held at Singha Durbar, decided to recommend an ordinance amending certain laws related to disasters and introducing provisions to remove legal hurdles in declaring missing persons dead. Government spokesperson and Education Minister Sasmit Pokhrel told reporters that “the existing provision requiring a person to have been missing for 12 years before being declared dead would be reduced to 45 days in view of the Bhotekoshi floods”.
Nepal on August 26 witnessed a “Himalayan Tsunami” triggered by a rock-and-ice avalanche, which has so far killed over 1,400 people, while more than 6,000 are yet to be accounted for.
Search and recovery efforts are underway in parts of flood-affected areas as widespread destruction by the flood has left more than 70,000 people directly affected, rendering them homeless.
In the August floods, settlements on high-lying slopes bordering Tibet were severely affected by the intensity of the flooding, which accelerated following a sudden glacial outburst. Timure and Syafru Besi, major settlements in the area, were wiped clean by the flash flood.
About 5 billion US Dollars is expected to be required for the reconstruction of the infrastructure, which is expected to take at least a decade to complete. The flood struck riverside settlements in Rasuwa district on the morning of August 26, rapidly affecting neighbouring areas including Nuwakot and Dhading.
Infrastructure losses underscore the scale of the event. Eight operating hydropower projects (281 MW) and four under construction (388 MW) were damaged, disrupting 431.1 MW of generation capacity. Major sections of the Galchhi-Betrawati-Rasuwagadhi road and the Prithvi Highway were destroyed or heavily damaged, along with 48 suspension bridges and 31 motorable bridges. (ANI)
Nepal proposes cutting wait to declare missing persons dead from 12 years to 45 days
