KATHMANDU: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced an immediate relief package for the families of employees and workers who went missing in the devastating floods in the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa.

The floods have damaged 13 hydropower projects and the employees and workers of many projects are missing. Under the NEA alone, 47 employees and workers are missing.

A meeting of the Board of Directors of the NEA held on Wednesday evening under the chairmanship of Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Biraj Bhakta Shrestha decided to provide relief to the families of the disappeared employees and workers to carry out search for the disappeared and to carry out social rites and make a living according to their religion, said member of the board of directors Anshu Kiran Shahi.

According to him, the government has decided to provide Rs 50,000 each to the nearest kin of the permanent employees, wages and service contract workers who have disappeared as relief package.

Secondly, it has been decided to provide 50 percent of the basic pay scale of the level of the disappeared employees to the nearest heir of the permanent employee until further decision is made regarding the compensation or amount to be paid by the NRA or to the nearest heir of the permanent employee who has gone missing for a maximum of six months from August.

During the meeting, Minister Shrestha said that the families of the missing employees and workers are the responsibility of the government. “We are one family. This money will not heal the wounds of such a big sorrow, but it should work as a balm,” he said.