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| English: Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, India, speaks during the welcome lunch at the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2008 in New Delhi (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
India announces $1 billion aid for rebuilding Nepal
highlighted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured a prompt rescue and relief operation within six hours of the 7.9-magnitude April 25 quake. .... "We reacted as if a disaster had struck India," Swaraj said. ...... a powerful earthquake that struck exactly two months back on April 25, killing about 9,000 people and injuring around 23,000 others besides flattening over five lakh houses. ..... Government of India's pledge for Nepal's post-earthquake reconstruction of Nepali Rupees 10,000 crore, equivalent to $1 billion, one fourth of it as Grant ..... The conference was attended by several countries, including China, Britain, Norway, Japan, Sri Lanka, the European Union besides the UN, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. ...... "Ours is a 'Roti-Beti ka Sambandh' (a bond of family and kinship)." ...... India's response was "swift, spontaneous and substantive" ..... "Operation Maitri was our largest ever disaster assistance effort abroad, valued at nearly four billion Indian Rupees. But what is important is not that this support was larger than other foreign countries; what matters is the strong feeling of empathy and the instantaneous, instinctive and heart-felt response from Indians for their Nepali brothers and sisters," Swaraj said. ...... Nepal's challenge would be to ensure efficient and transparent utilisation of the funds ........ huge reconstruction needs of $6.7 billion. ..... Nepal, our oldest and closest friend and neighbour ...... "Hydropower projects now need to be speedily implemented and work on construction of the Kathmandu-Nijgadh fast track road and the Nijgadh airport with India's participation should be expedited."Nepal earthquake: India and China pledge millions in aid
Pledges include $1bn (£640m) from India, $500m from China, and $600m from the Asian Development Bank. ..... Nepal says it needs $7bn after April and May's devastating quakes, in which nearly 9,000 people were killed....... Opening the conference, Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala promised that the relief funds would be used wisely. ....... Donor countries and international agencies have voiced concerns that red tape and poor planning could result in the donations being squandered. ...... Additional pledges of $260m from Japan, $130m from the US, and $100m from the European Union - as well as an earlier announcement of up to $500m from the World Bank - take the total assistance offered to around $3bn.Foreign Donors Pledge $3 Billion to Help Rebuild Quake-Ravaged Nepal
“We will share periodically the use of the funds to maintain transparency because you are accountable to your own citizens,” Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told an international donors’ conference in Kathmandu ..... Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China promised $483 million, while the Japanese government pledged $260 million. ...... Chandan Sapkota, an economist at the Asian Development Bank who is based in Nepal, said concerns remained over the capacity of the Nepalese government, mired in bureaucratic delays, to use the aid effectively. ...... “We need a plan from the government that we can spend the money within four to five years,” Mr. Sapkota said. “And that’s a very tall order.” ...... Even as the central government made assurances that the funds would be implemented efficiently, officials in earthquake-affected districts have said that the government’s plan to immediately provide $2,000 to families for home rebuilding is mired in red tape. ....... the Asian Development Bank’s commitment of up to $600 million would largely go to reconstructing government schools.After Nepal Quake, Nepalis In The US Now Eligible For Temporary Protection
some Nepalis in the United States can now apply to stay in the country for at least another year, with work permits and temporary protection from deportation. U.S. immigration authorities opened applications Wednesday for Nepalis to get “temporary protected status,” which could affect up to 25,000 people currently in the United States without long-term legal status........ may now qualify for TPS and receive authorization to stay in the country until December 2016. They have to show they have been in the country at least since Wednesday, and have until the end of 2015 to send in their applications. Nepalis who arrive in the U.S. after Wednesday aren’t eligible. ..... Lawmakers in New York also vocally supported the legislation: Around 40,000 Nepalis live in the city, mostly in Queens. .... The new measure could affect 10,000 to 25,000 Nepalis ..... The TPS program isn’t new. The U.S. previously granted TPS protection to Haitians after Haiti’s devastating earthquake in 2010. Since then U.S. officials have continuously extended TPS for Haitians given the slow pace of recovery after the quake, and about 58,000 people have been granted protection. Given the scale of the destruction caused by Nepal’s disaster, the U.S. could likewise easily extend protections for Nepalis past the December 2016 expiration date, potentially for several more years. ....... Immigrants from El Salvador and Honduras have received such long-term protection. The U.S. first granted TPS to Salvadorans in 2001 following a large-scale earthquake there, and to Nicaragua and Honduras in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch ravaged both countries. Anyone from those countries who was in the U.S. at the beginning of those programs is still eligible for TPS protection more than 15 years later. ..... TPS doesn’t provide for a path to legal status, however, and those who receive protection must reapply and pay new fees every time the program is extended. The comprehensive immigration bill that was passed in the Senate in 2013 would have provided a path to citizenship for TPS-eligible immigrants, but that bill has since languished amid congressional deadlock.Go Inside the Effort to Rebuild Nepal
Rohingya Say Quake-Ravaged Nepal Is Better Than Life at Home or Death at Sea
“In Burma, just being Muslim is like a crime” ..... “This is the situation of the Rohingya,” says Hassan. “The person who is not a citizen anywhere has no limit to the punishment he can suffer.”
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