Nepal's Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa has underscored the need of replacing the existing development policy to prevent natural disasters.

Addressing a meeting of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority's executive committee at the Ministry of Home Affairs in Singha Durbar on Thursday, Minister Thapa sarcastically hit out, "Development policy here meant 'dozer policy'. Our engineers became dozer drivers which is inviting disaster."

Pressing for the need to raise awareness about building earth-quake resilient houses, not residing nearby riverside as well as landslide-prone areas, the Minister argued that it was imperative to find out the objective and subjective cause for the loss of lives and properties due to the natural calamities.

Stating that the unscientific and unmanaged human settlements had also given impetus to frantic occurrence of natural disaster, he viewed that the increasing occurrence of natural disasters was due to climate change and its impacts besides human factors.

He also pointed out the need to currently expedite search and rescue operations in the disaster-hit places and to accelerate reconstruction works in the long-term.

Minister Thapa, who also chairs the executive committee of the Authority, instructed the committee members to present the budget estimation, the details of the loss of lives and properties by natural disasters and programmes and plans for the reconstruction projects in the disaster-hit areas.

Present in the meeting were Minister for Health and Population Bhanubhakta Dhakal, Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Hridesh Tripathi, State-Minister for Urban Development Rambir Manandhar.

Similarly, the meeting was also attended by secretaries of various concerned Ministries and heads of the security agencies.

https://risingnepaldaily.com/nation/minister-thapa-bats-for-new-development-policy-to-prevent-natural-disasters