Banking News – The government is going to amend some Nepal Acts to streamline disaster-related work. For this, the Ministry of Home Affairs has prepared the “Bill to Amend Some Nepal Acts Relating to Disaster.” The bill has been prepared for arrangements including the search, storage, and handover of bodies of persons who died from serious disasters to their families, minimum relief to be provided to families of missing persons, and judicial declaration of death if missing persons are not found.

The ministry has currently published a notice under the Legislation Act, 2081, seeking public opinion regarding the bill. It has requested that suggestions be provided by emailing [email protected] within 7 days of the publication of the notice.

In the bill prepared by the ministry, Section 33 (a) has been added after Section 33 by amending the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, 2074. This includes arrangements for the search, storage, and handover to families of bodies of persons who died from serious disasters. By adding (k1) after clause (k) of sub-section (2) of Section 39, an arrangement will be made regarding minimum relief to be provided to families of persons missing due to disasters.

Clause (4) has been added after clause (3) of the restrictive clause of sub-section (1) of Section 40 of the National Civil Code, 2074. This states that if the Government of Nepal carries out search and rescue operations with or without declaring a disaster crisis area by specifying a period according to prevailing law, it will occur after the period of the declared crisis area or after the completion of search and rescue operations. Additionally, in clause (a) of sub-section (4) of Section (2), it is stated that in situations where search and rescue must be carried out with or without declaring a disaster crisis area, if persons missing in such disasters are not found, judicial declaration of death will not be required to be made when the Government of Nepal makes a decision according to prevailing law.

Similarly, by amending the National Identity Card and Registration Act, 2076, the following clauses (k1) and (k2) have been added after clause (k) of Section 18. (k1) In the absence of the indicator as per clause (k), the guardian or authorized person of the concerned person according to prevailing law, or if such a person is not available, the head of the local level or the concerned ward chair, and (k2) in the case of a foreign citizen who has died or gone missing due to a disaster, the concerned embassy or mission of the relevant country located in Nepal or designated to look after Nepal must state.

In Section 29 (a) added after Section 29 of the same Act, a special arrangement has been made regarding the registration of incidents of persons missing due to disasters. It includes a provision that in situations where persons missing due to disasters are not found during search operations, after the period of declaration of the disaster crisis area expires according to prevailing law or after the completion of search and rescue operations, the person as per clause (k), (k1), or (k2) of sub-section (1) of Section 18 may give notice for death registration with the following documents at the office of the Registrar of the local level where the permanent address or temporary residence is located or the local level where the incident occurred.

For this, the following will be required: a copy of the deceased’s citizenship certificate (if citizenship has been made), a copy of the indicator’s citizenship certificate, the indicator’s and deceased’s passport if the deceased is a foreign citizen, visa, and recommendation of the local level where the incident occurred, a recommendation letter from the concerned embassy or mission if the indicator is an embassy or mission, and a decision made by the Government of Nepal regarding the declaration of death according to prevailing law. Additionally, in the event of the death of a person from a foreign country, information must be given to the concerned local registrar of the local level where the incident occurred. Also, upon receiving such information, the local registrar will register the death and issue a certificate.