Govt slow in identifying quake victims

Kathmandu, Mar. 18: The government has been slow in identifying the quake victims and distributing the house reconstruction grant.

It’s been almost two years since the first jolt hit the country, and the government has so far distributed the house reconstruction grant to 533,361 families who lost their houses in the devastating earthquake of 2015.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), 85 per cent of the 626,695 households in the 14 severely hit districts, including the Kathmandu Valley, eligible for the housing grant have received the first installment of the grant, that is, Rs. 50,000.

These households will receive a grant of Rs. 300,000 and concessional loans as well.

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has said that those households affected by the quake will receive the second installment of Rs. 150,000 only after completing their house construction up to the plinth level, and money will be deposited into their bank accounts following the inspection of the house by the engineers.

The tremors killed about 9,000 people and damaged about 900,000 households in 31 districts in the hills and mountains.

But the government has signed the grant agreement with only 554,614 households so far while it is still surveying the quake victims in 17 districts that were moderately hit by the earthquake.

Spokesperson of the NRA Yam Lal Bhoosal said that the survey in those 17 districts would be concluded within a week from now.

The reconstruction body in November last year had announced that every household that had lost a house in the quake would receive the grant money within a couple of months, and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had directed the NRA to distribute the first installment of the grant within 45 days.

As per MoFALD’s statistics, the highest number of beneficiaries comes from Sindhupalchowk.

Approximately 74,912 households in Sindhupalchowk have received the first installment of the grant money.

Likewise, 62,894 in Dhading, 61,575 in Nuwakot, 59,751 in Kavrepalanchowk, 52,675 in Gorkha and 47,079 in Dolakha have received the grant money.

Meanwhile, more than 200,000 families have registered complaints at various government agencies demanding that they be included in the list of beneficiaries.