Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday suggested that the Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) should participate “in the rehabilitation process” of earthquake-affected Nepal and assured the Nepalese ambassador here that all Indians were with his nation in this hour of crisis.
“After relief, the rehabilitation process in Nepal should start and NGOs should participate in the process,” Jaitley said while seeing off a consignment of relief materials to Nepal here on Sunday.
Nepalese Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay, present on the occasion, expressed his gratitude to India and its people and appreciated the “pro-active” role played by it in extending its rescue and relief assistance.
“We hear about people-to -people relationships but, we found heart-to-heart relations in the form of India’s response to quake-hit Nepal and we express our deep gratitude for it,” Upadhyay said.
Jaitley observed that India’s disaster management capacity has improved which is seen active abroad in the recent times.
“India’s disaster management capacity has improved. We rescued people from Iraq, Yemen and Nepal. Earlier, only the USA had expertise in disaster management,” he said.
“There is a principle of rehabilitation. Quality of life of those who survived must improve as compared to what it was earlier,” the Minister said referring to post-disaster rehabilitation exercise in Nepal.
Jaitley said India responded quickly to the earth-quake in Nepal with the first Air Force plane with rescue and relief material taking off at around 4 PM on the day of disaster in that country.
Upadhyaya said Prime Minister Narendra Modi contacted Nepalese Prime Minister, President “ and myself” just an hour after the earth-quake and promised that the entire Government and people of India were with Nepal in its crisis hour. Three truckloads of relief material including 8.5 tonne of rice, blankets and tarpaulin sheets provided by Thakurdwara Trust were flagged-off by Jaitley to Nepal. The relief material will be passed over to the Nepalese Army at Raxaul on India-Nepal border.