The government has decided to provide Rs. 200,000 relief to families of each victim killed in Friday’s earthquake in Jajarkot and Rukum West.

Informing about the decisions of the Cabinet meeting held on Sunday at Singha Durbar, Minister for Communication and Information Technology and government spokesperson Rekha Sharma said that it has been decided to provide assistance in the first phase as an immediate relief.

Similarly, while expressing the government’s condolences to those who died due to the Jajarkot earthquake, Minister Sharma said that it has been decided to speed up the relief and rescue work and provide free treatment to the injured.

An emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers held after the arrival of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ from the field visit of quake-hit districts, the government has decided to provide free treatment of all the injured patients of quake in all the government health institutions.

Similarly, the government has decided to arrange temporary shelter, food and security arrangements for the families displaced by the earthquake.

The government has also decided to make the coordination, search, rescue and relief operation through one-door system and make Surkhet the main contact spot and Nepalgunj secondary contact point.

Minister Sharma said that the government has also decided to accept the assistance formally offered by neighbouring countries and international organisations and express gratitude on behalf of the government for the support.

The federal government has decided to give special thanks to the government agencies, local levels, province governments, individuals and organisations that are involved in the search, rescue, relief and treatment of the injured after the earthquake, and urge them to continue in coordination with the District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC).

The Cabinet meeting also thanked those who have donated relief assistance in the Prime Minister’s Natural Disaster Relief Fund. The government has urged the concerned agencies to make arrangements to bring the roads, communications and other structures damaged by the earthquake into operation immediately.

Minister Sharma said that the government has decided to advance the reconstruction of the damaged area by creating an integrated action plan.

It has also been given authority to the Ministry of Urban Development to proceed forth with the plan for the reconstruction of the structures damaged by the earthquake. The structures to be built there will be quake-resilient and have to be completed within a year of the work beginning.

The government has decided to help constructing make-shift shelters for the families whose homes were damaged completely by the earthquake, said Minister Sharma.