While lawmakers on Tuesday urged the government to raise the level of preparedness for future earthquakes, acting Prime Minister and Home Minister Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar offered a lame-duck response.

Speaking in a meeting of the parliament’s State Affairs Committee (SAC), Gachchhadar, also the Deputy Prime Minister, said, “Even great warriors are terrified of natural calamities. Maoist leaders, the prime minister and the home minister, we all were scared when we felt the quake in the parliament building, but we didn’t run out as we were ashamed (to do so).”

The SAC meeting came two days after an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale shook Nepal on Sunday evening.

He admitted to Nepal’s low preparedness level, but defended the government. He said even powerful countries like the US, India and China don’t have control over earthquakes.

The acting PM of the country took an extremely fatalistic view of earthquakes.

“We have already become an earthquake zone. So let us pray to the Pashupatinath that it takes place in America and Europe, not here,” said Gachchhadar, who in the capacity of the home minister heads the Central Natural Disaster Relief Committee.

The SAC discussed the ongoing rescue and rehabilitation efforts and the government’s strategy to control natural calamities and carry out rescue operations during its three-hour-long meeting at Singha Durbar.

Posted on: 2011-09-21 08:50