Supreme Court orders government to ensure nobody dies of hunger

Kathmandu -The Supreme Court has issued an order to the government to distribute relief focusing people eking out a living through labour and those whose earning has been interrupted, by maintaining transparency in relief distribution. A joint bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki and Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Monday, gave a ruling to provide relief in a transparent manner without misusing it and focusing on people whose income has been disrupted due to the lockdown. "Pay attention so that there is no any lapse in correctly identifying the targeted people and families in order to implement, in practice, the policy of 'Nobody Faces and Dies of Hunger in Nepal' announced by the government," the apex court order reads.

The bench ordered for making provisions for protection and relief to the farmers as agricultural work is a continuous business that is never stopped. The Supreme Court bench also called for making arrangements for monitoring whether or not the 27,818 beds managed for quarantine throughout the country meet the WHO standard. It ordered all people who entered Nepal via air route and surface route in quarantine. Moreover, the apex court has called for expanding the coronavirus testing facilities in other urban centres also outside the Kathmandu Valley and in all districts, as the present number of such facilities is very inadequate. It has also ordered promptly airlifting, by helicopter, any suspected coronavirus cases in the rural outback to the treatment centre at hospital for testing, isolation and treatment, coordinating with the local level and the administration as well.

Likewise, the Supreme Court has ordered the government to make arrangements so that emergency health services as well as other necessary health care and treatment to be done immediately in other cases, except coronavirus, are not affected. It also ordered operation of health services by the private hospitals and health facilities. The government has also been ordered to arrange for the supply of test kits, medical equipment and supplies, and personal protection equipment to all the health facilities, including the private ones, across the country.

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