National Reconstruction Authority (NRA)'s chief
executive officer Sushil Gyawali recently said that no genuine quake victim
would be deprived of the house reconstruction grant, a purse of Rs. 200,000
that the government has announced to provide to all the families rendered
homeless by the devastating earthquakes of April 25 and May 12 last year.
The main opposition party, the Nepali Congress, obstructed the proceedings of the
Legislature-Parliament demanding that the grant money should be paid in a
single installment instead of the NRA's
plan to distribute it in three installments, Rs. 50,000, Rs. 80,000 and Rs.
70,000 respectively.
Of late, CPN (Maoist Centre) chairman Pushpa Kamal
Dahal 'Prachanda' has also been making statement that the quake victims should
be provided Rs. 300,000 as reconstruction grant.
Earlier, lawmakers from various political parties
had demanded a grant of Rs. 500,000 to each family, who lost their house in the
tremors.
Following such demands, the National Planning
Commission vice-chairman Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada had to urge the lawmakers to
calculate the burden that the country had to bear if each of the quake victims
were awarded half a million rupees for house reconstruction.
He warned that if Rs. 500,000 was given to each
household, most of the government revenue or all of the money that donors
pledged to provide to Nepal's reconstruction drive in the International Conference
on Nepal's Reconstruction (ICNR) held last year would be used up in the grants
and there would be no money for other development works.
These events are enough to show that the
reconstruction has become a contentious issue while the political parties would
leave no opportunity to politicize the post-quake reconstruction. However, the
progress that the country has made in terms of the reconstruction process so
far is remarkable.
The NRA has almost finished the survey of the
damaged houses in 11 out of 14 severely hit districts, completed the
formulation of various policies and laws, established sub-regional offices,
trained and mobilised engineers in the field, began distributing the
reconstruction grant via banking channel, formulated five-year Post Disaster
Recovery Framework (PDRF), constructed temporary community shelters and
established grievance hearing mechanism.
Likewise, the reconstruction body had completed
geological study of quake-affected settlements that are at high risks of
landslides during the monsoon following the powerful tremors that rocked the
hills in the central and eastern regions.
Complaints
hearing
The NRA has recently been flooded with the
complaints from the households which were announced disqualified to obtain the
reconstruction grant from the government.
As many as 76,824 complaints were filed at the
reconstruction body till last Friday from 11 severely hit districts. The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has
surveyed the damage in these districts.
The largest number of complaints was registered in
Dolakha district where approximately 15,527 households filed applications
claiming that they were eligible for receiving the house reconstruction grant
while 13,000 and 12,538 complaints were registered in Sindhuli and Ramechhap
districts respectively.
More than 5,000 complaints were received in Gorkha,
Okhaldhunga and Nuwakot districts.
"The NRA is positive towards 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. Genuine victims would be compensated at any cost,"
Gyawali said in the Legislature-Parliament's State Affairs Committee meeting
this week.
The government has recently decided to provide Rs.
50,000 to the households whose houses were partially damaged.
Housing
grant distribution
Housing reconstruction grant distribution process
has obviously been slow. By now only about 6,000 households have received the
first installment of Rs. 50,000 in their bank account so far. NRA CEO Gywali
confirmed that the reconstruction body had deposited Rs. 245 million into the
bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
The NRA had signed
separate Memorandum of Understandings with Nepal Bankers Association,
Development Bankers Association and Nepal Financial Institutions Association
and forged agreement with 59 banks and financial institutions to distribute the
grant money, reads the latest report of the NRA.
The banking process to obtain the grant amount has
also been simplified. The quake-victims need not to be present to open their
bank account. Their account will be set up on the basis of information the NRA
sent to the banks and beneficiary household can obtain the grant money by producing
their citizenship card and housing reconstruction grant agreement paper.
The NRA introduced the grant distribution programme
only in five districts out of 11 districts.
However, the reconstruction body has completed signing housing grant
agreements with 152,000 households in those districts. The total number of
beneficiaries stands at 533,045 in 11 districts, and additional 100,000
households might be added to the beneficiary-list after the survey in all quake
affected districts concludes.
NRA spokesperson Ram Prasad Thapaliya informed that
as many as 184,264 households were not included in the beneficiaries list as
they did not meet the requirements set by the NRA.
Upon the completion of data collection in 11
severely-hit districts, the survey has
begun in Lalitpur district while preparations are underway to mobilise the
teams in all three districts in the Kathmandu Valley and other 17
quake-affected districts.
In order to speed up the survey process, the
reconstruction body has decided to conduct the data collection work as per the
verification model.
Reconstruction
The house reconstruction was affected due to the
absence of secretaries in the Village Development Committees of the remote
areas, delay in establishing the reconstruction body and repeated damage
surveys.
According to a government report, reconstruction of
only 5,000 houses has begun in Dolakha, Ramechhap, Sindhupalchowk and Gorkha
districts. The government disbursed Rs. 12.44 billion for house reconstruction
through the Central Project Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Federal
Affairs and local Development (MoFALD).
The government approved about 17 house designs for
the quake-damaged houses. "More designs will be brought out soon while
people can build houses on their own way ensuring that they are quake
resilient," informed the MoFALD.
But, the reconstruction works might hit a snag
because of the shortage of construction materials and construction workers.
According to president of the Nepal Engineers' Association Dhruba Thapa, there
will be a shortage of cement, rod, concrete and even the sand because most the
reconstruction works will be implemented simultaneously.
However, the
government and private sector have been trying to address the shortage of human
resources in the reconstruction works. They have conducted training for masons
and carpenters in various districts.
Likewise, as
many as 1,346 engineers, 521 sub-engineers and 575 assistant sub-engineers have
been trained and mobilised in the quake hit areas to facilitate the people in
grant agreement, technical agreement and other related areas.
Following the policy for the mobilisation of the
national and international Non-Government Organisations in the reconstruction,
the NRA has approved 104 proposals of various I/NGOs, which have pledged to
spend approximately Rs. 38 billion.
The projects include the reconstruction of 18,814
private houses. "We have allowed 15 I/NGOs to assist in the private house
reconstruction but such houses will not get the grant facility from the
government," remarked Gyawali.
The Non-Resident Nepalese Association is assisting
in the relocation of Laprak village of Gorkha.
The non-government organisations have also pledged
to reconstruct 29 health posts and 652 school buildings while Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has started the reconstruction of five schools
in Lalitpur districts. JICA has initiated tender process to rebuild 27 other
schools.
Heritage
reconstruction
The government has expedited the process of heritage
reconstruction simultaneously along with the private house construction.
"The reconstruction of temple at Rani Pokhari
will be completed by next Bhai
Tika, the second largest Hindu festival
celebrated during October-November," informed Department of Archeology.
The government has also launched 'I will build my
Dharhara' campaign and has been collecting money for the same purpose. The
consultant for the design of Dharhara was finalised and the Detailed Project
Report will be prepared by August.
Similarly, reconstruction work is underway at Mani
Mandap in Patan, Changunarayan in Bhaktapur, Bajrayogini, Bansha Gopal at
Hanuman Dhoka, Fasi Dega in Bhaktapur and Annantapur of Swayambhunath.
Approximately reconstruction of 51 cultural,
religious and historical sites is under tender process.
Community shelters
The government has
speeded up the construction works of temporary community shelters in the
severely-hit districts. The Central Programme Implementation Unit at the
Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and the Nepal Army (NA)
have been constructing 82 community shelters in the 11 worst-hit districts.
The MoUD is constructing 46 shelters and NA
is working on 36 community shelter projects while tender process of four
projects has begun.
Nepal Army has completed a shelter in
Sanghutar, Ramechhap last week. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense
Bhim Rawal handed over the shelter to the community.
“The government is constructing shelters as
per the decision of the respective district’s Disaster Relief Committee and
demands of the people,” informed the reconstruction body.
The shelter construction projects are
running in Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk, Kavre, Dolakha, Ramechhap,
Sindhuli, Makwanpur, Okhaldhunga and Gorakha.
Geological study for settlement relocation
The NRA mobilised
technical teams in all severely hit 11 districts on 1st June for the
geological study of the quake-affected settlement s, which are at high risk
following the powerful tremors. The teams led by senior geologists from the
Department of Mines and Geology (DMG), concluded that the number of settlements
required to be relocated had drastically came down than the previous estimates.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, a National Planning Commission team had concluded that about 19,000 households of
188 VDCs of 18 districts needed to be relocated.
“But, the situation is
not that much bad. We found that only a few settlements that are at risk of
landslides need to be relocated,” informed Dr. Som Nath Sapkota, chief of
National Seismological Centre at the DMG.
Final report of the
study will suggest whether the settlements are safe, need pre-cautionary
measures or urgent relocation.
Earlier, the NRA sent a
team to Singati of Dolakha for pilot geological study with an aim of developing
a modality for the study of all settlements.
According to executive member of NRA Dr.
Chandra Bahadur Shrestha, as the establishment of the reconstruction body and
appointment of the CEO was delayed, it affected the geological studies too.
The National Reconstruction Authority is headed by
the Prime Minister led National Reconstruction Consultation Council and has
Steering Committee, Executive Committee and District Coordination Committee and
Development Partner Coordination and Facilitation Committee.
The Steering Committee is the central body of the
NRA which is chaired by the Prime Minister and leader of the main opposition
party or his representative is vice-chairman.
Executive Committee is led by the CEO and is the
main executive body of the NRA while other two committees have the coordination
responsibilities.
The reconstruction body has six divisions at the
central office and seven Sub-Regional Offices in Gorkha, Dolakha, Kavre,
Nuwakot, Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Sindhupalchowk.
Likewise, the Central Project Implementation Unit
(CPIU) was created at the major line ministries like MoFALD, Ministry of Urban
Development, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Ministry of
Education.
Severely-hit 14 districts also have separate
District Project Implementation Unit under the CPIU of the four ministries.
(Published in The Rising Nepal, Friday 1st July)
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