NRA promises grant to all quake victims

Kathmandu, June 26: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Sunday informed that no quake victims would be deprived of house reconstruction grant.

Speaking at the Legislature-Parliament's State Affairs Committee meeting, NRA chief executive officer Sushil Gyawali clarified that the reconstruction body had been working to make necessary provisions to provide grants to all eligible households.

The reconstruction body has recently been flooded with the complaints from the households which were disqualified to obtain the reconstruction grant.

As many as 76,824 complaints were filed at the NRA from the 11 severely hit districts where damage survey is being conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The reconstruction body has completed signing housing grant agreements with 142,722 households in those 11 districts while 5,050 households have received the first installment Rs. 50,000 of the housing grant.

The housing grant will be distributed in three installments Rs. 50,000, Rs. 80,000 and Rs. 70,000 on the basis of the building construction completion.

"The NRA is positive about addressing the grievances of the victims if they were left out in the detail household survey. We have already developed a mechanism for grievance hearing and addressing the problems of the people," Gyawali said.

The government has decided to provide Rs. 50,000 to the households whose houses were partially damaged.

Gyawali claimed that the reconstruction process was on the right track. "Initial eight months were wasted without any significant progress in reconstruction. It has been affecting the performance of the authority now."

In the past six months, the NRA has completed the preparations and reached the people, Gyawali updated the lawmakers.

He clarified that the government forged agreements with the donor agencies that did not allow it to distribute all grant amount in one installment.

Lawmakers urged not to politicize the reconstruction issue.

The State Affairs Committee directed the NRA to establish its offices in all 14 severely-hit districts and directed the Ministry of General Administration to provide necessary human resources for the offices.