Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The government has amended the procedure to allow the deployment of resources and manpower under the Prime Minister’s Employment Program for post-disaster reconstruction.
The Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security has amended the Cash for Work (Operation and Management) Guidelines, 2020, enabling the deployment of registered unemployed individuals in post-disaster reconstruction efforts.
Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security, Sharat Singh Bhandari, said with the guidelines now amended, people on the unemployed list can now be involved in disaster response and reconstruction works. “Registered unemployed individuals can now be mobilized for immediate relief and disaster mitigation. The executive committee can decide to implement repair-related employment projects as Section 4 (2),” he added.
With this amendment, local governments can now immediately initiate community infrastructure repair work during disasters. Local units can mobilize resources from the Prime Minister’s Employment Program for rescue, relief and reconstruction of small-scale projects during future disasters.
Minister Bhandari urged local governments to mobilize registered unemployed individuals for infrastructure repair. He stated that the conditional grants provided to local levels through the Prime Minister’s Employment Program can be utilized for post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction by making a decision through their respective municipal executive.
The government has declared 41 local units in 11 districts affected by recent disasters as crisis-hit areas for three months.
