Kathmandu – The State-2 government is spending two billion rupees in prevention and control of COVID-19. The State government’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning has released this amount out of the total State budget. The State-2 government’s total budget for fiscal year 2019/2020 is Rs 38.72 billion. Ministry secretary Prem Kumar Shrestha said Rs 860 million has been released to the Ministry of Social Development and Rs 100.45 million to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law for spending under the ‘Coronavirus prevention and control’ heading.

Likewise, Rs 337 million has been released to the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Forests, Rs 360 million has been released to the Ministry of Land Management and Agriculture for relief assistance to the lockdown-affected people. Secretary Shrestha said Rs 10 million has been released to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development and additional Rs 2.5 million each to the Ministry’s four Divisions. Apart from this, the COVID-19 Fund set up by the state government has Rs 250 million.