NRA bans house construction

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has forbidden the people from constructing their houses, and organizations from distributing money to the quake-victims without its approval.

The NRA issued a notice on Friday saying it would be illegal to construct building and distribute money as it was formulating a working procedure for the same.

“The NRA is drafting working procedure for mobilizing assistance of non-government organizations (NGOs) in reconstruction and rehabilitation. Therefore, all concerned people and organizations are requested to halt the construction of buildings and distribution of monetary assistance as it would be against the prevailing policies and laws,” read the NRA notice.

According to the National Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Policy 2016, the government grant for reconstruction of individual houses damaged in the earthquakes in April and May last year would be channeled through the NRA to respective agencies.

The notice said that the NRA would coordinate and assist for the construction of safe and quake resistant building.

It asked all respective organizations to contact NRA for further process.

 NRA spokesperson Suresh Adhikari said that the Authority put a moratorium on building construction and money distribution to enable the reconstruction body for the coordination in construction of houses and to create uniformity, and to ensure the technical aspects of the buildings.

“We just want to manage the involvement of the NGOs. Our intention is not to ban them forever. The NRA has received information that various organization are distributing money and initiated building construction in the quake affected districts,” he maintained.

The reconstruction body is engaged in formulating policies and working procedures, developing implementation process and building organizational structure needed for the post-quake reconstruction and rehabilitation works.