NRA warns those who misappropriate housing grant

Kathmandu, Sept. 21: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Wednesday warned of stern actions against those who obtain the house reconstruction grant by unfair means and misappropriate it.

The reconstruction body has received hundreds of complaints from the districts claiming that the families that did not fulfill the criteria of an earthquake victim had been receiving the grant money.

Issuing a statement, the NRA said that it was seriously concerned about such complaints and would take necessary action against those who abused the grant money.

"The house grant agreement has a provision to punish those who receive grants by feeding wrong information” said spokesperson of the NRA Ram Prasad Thapaliya.

But, it has not stopped people from violating the provision.

According to the NRA, if anyone gets money meant for the quake victims by unfair means and if such actions were proved after investigation the money would be recovered from them as government arrears and they will be punished as per the law.

Likewise, the families that misappropriate the first installment of the grant, Rs. 50,000, would not be eligible for the second installment.

Apart from these provisions, earthquake resistant measures should be followed while constructing the house and it should be as per the models prescribed by the government.

In its statement, the reconstruction body has urged not to obtain the grant money by submitting false information and immediately return the money if anyone has acquired money in such way.

As per the reconstruction related laws, only those families will receive the money, whose house was completely damaged in the tremors, do not have house in any other locations and have been included in the beneficiaries list of the government.

The government is distributing the first installment of the house reconstruction grant in 11 severely hit districts.

Thapaliya said that about 70 per cent of the quake victims from those 11 districts had received the first installment by September 20.

About 533,000 families in those districts have signed the grant agreement with the government and 380,520 families have received the first installment so far.

The government has failed to meet the target announced by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda to distribute the grant within 45 days.

About 48 days went by since the PM’s announcement.  

While the NRA is yet to initiate survey in 17 quake-hit districts and survey is underway in the districts of the Kathmandu Valley, the government has received approximately 170,400 complaints demanding that they should be included in the beneficiaries list.

So far, no complaints have been addressed.