Jakarta, Sept. 8 -- Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian urged the governments of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) regions affected by August's earthquake to maximize Rp200 billion (around US$11.3 million) in contingency funds approved by President Prabowo Subianto.

He said the president mobilized the emergency budget allocation to enable regional governments to accelerate disaster response and recovery efforts. The NTT provincial government was allocated Rp40 billion, while Rp20 billion each went to eight district administrations.

Karnavian noted the relatively slow pace of fund realization in quake-hit regions during a disaster mitigation meeting chaired by Prabowo on Monday (Sept. 7), according to a statement cited here Tuesday.

"We have is...