First installment of house grant to all in a month: NRA

Kathmandu, Aug 16: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Monday launched a special campaign to complete the distribution of the first installment of the house reconstruction grant to all households that signed the grant agreement with the government.

"The Authority plans to deposit the first installment of the grant to the bank account of the families that signed the agreement for the grant, complete the agreement signing with the remaining quake-affected households and address the complaints registered so far during the campaign period," NRA chief executive officer Sushil Gyawali said in a press conference.

The government last week announced to provide the first installment of the grant money to all the quake affected families within one and a half months.

Gyawali informed that the reconstruction body launched the campaign to complete the government announcement and NRA action plan.

The Authority has unveiled plans to extend its working hours in the morning, evening and at weekends. It will also mobilize additional human resources in the severely-hit districts in order to meet the target in time.

The government has signed the agreement with 339,462 households by Monday afternoon while the first installment of the grant money has been deposited into the bank accounts of 49,749 households.

After concluding the damage assessment survey in 11 worst-hit districts, data collection is under way in the districts of Kathmandu valley and other 14 quake-hit districts.

Meanwhile, the NRA plans to conduct the survey in the remaining districts across the country. 

Meanwhile, more than 105,000 families have filed complaints at the NRA and other government agencies including Hello Sarkar demanding that they should also be provided with the reconstruction grant.

As the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) conducted survey concluded that there were 533,058 households in the worst-hit 11 districts eligible to receive the house reconstruction grant of Rs. 200,000, tens of thousands families remained discontent.

According to the survey conducted by the government during the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake in April and May last year, more than 715,000 houses were damaged by the jolts.

CEO Gyawali informed that the reconstruction body would mobilize monitoring teams comprising of member of NRA Executive Committee, chiefs of respective Sub-Regional Offices and other government officers in the districts.

"Such teams will monitor the activities in the district and local level. In addition to it, a Central Monitoring Committee has been formed to coordinate, facilitate and monitor the works and activities in the severely-hit districts," said Gyawali.

The NRA CEO-led committee has secretaries and chiefs of Central Project Implementation Units of the concerned ministries as its members.