The constitutional body on Wednesday called secretaries of three ministries to take briefings about the government efforts on security, rescue, relief distribution and market monitoring.
The human rights watchdog called Home Secretary Surya Silwal, Secretary at the Ministry of Supply Ngaindra Prasad Upadhyay and the secretary at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare Dhana Bahadur Tamang.
On the occasion, NHRC Chairman Anup Raj Sharma urged the government to put special focus toward rescue and relief distribution. He directed the secretaries to protect citizens' right to life by arranging shelters for the quake victims before monsoon begins. He also urged the government to take strong against those creating artificial scarcity of food.
During the briefings, Home Secretary Silwal admitted that the relief distribution could not become effective in the absence of coordination between government agencies and the lack of resources. However, he vowed to make relief distribution more effective in the coming days.
Likewise, Secretary at Ministry of Supply Upadhyay said the government has been taking action against people involved in creating artificial scarcity of goods, black marketeering, food adulteration and price hiking. According to NHRC Spokesperson Mohana Ansari, Upadhyay promised that the government would continue effective monitoring of the market.
Meanwhile, Secretary Tamang informed the commission that the ministry has been watchful about the risks of trafficking in women and children on the pretext of rescue. He said that the ministry of Social Welfare has stopped registering new organizations for effective monitoring of the existing ones. He also claimed that the ministry has been planning to arrange temporary shelters for children and senior citizens, who became homeless due to the devastating earthquake.
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