FM urges donors to assist in helping flood victims

Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has urged the donors and development partners to provide assistance in helping victims of Saptakoshi flood.

Dr. Bhattarai said that though the government has not been able to calculate the total loss and damage in monetary terms, the tentative estimation shows that it will cross a billion Nepali rupees.

"We would like to urge you to come up and support us in our efforts to address this incident through whatever means available and feasible – cash, kind or otherwise – the modality of which can be worked out together through mutual consultations," Dr. Bhattarai told donors, Thursday, at his first meeting with donor community since he became the FM.

He informed that over 7000 households consisting of over 40,000 people have been displaced. Nearly 1000 houses have been swept away and 3000 houses affected badly. Eastern Nepal has been virtually cut-off from the rest of the country because about 15 kilometers of the only East West highway has been either swept away or is under waters.

At the meeting held at the Finance Ministry premises, Dr. Bhattarai also urged the donors to continue supporting the new government.

"We welcome and thank for the development partners' continuous support to Nepal's socio-economic development to date, and expect the scaled up support with reasonable flexibility to Nepal in the coming days," he said. nepalnews.com sd Aug 28 08