All your relief is belong to us

The Nepalese government is expropriating all quake relief donations. Via @samfromwgtn, here's the Ekantipur Report:

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) issued a circular to A, B and C class banks in the country on Thursday afternoon stating that all the amount deposited in them for the purpose of relief for Saturday’s Great Quake will be automatically transferred to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.
“Due to the disaster caused by the Great Quake, all the accounts opened in banks and financial institutions by different organisations for collecting donations will be earmarked and the amount in them will be transferred to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund,” read the circular.

Meanwhile, the UN pleads for the Nepalese government to stop holding up aid relief:

The United Nations has urged Nepal to relax customs controls which it says are holding up deliveries of aid to survivors of last week's earthquake.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Nepal had a duty to provide faster customs clearance for relief supplies.

Many people are yet to receive the aid, which is piling up at Kathmandu airport, a week after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on 25 April.

...
Nepal lifted import taxes on tarpaulins and tents on Friday but home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal said all goods arriving from abroad had to be inspected.

"This is something we need to do," he said.

So there are stupidities worse than those we enjoyed in Christchurch, where it remained illegal to build a secondary flat in your house even after 12000 houses were destroyed.