17 districts get house reconstruction grants from today

Kathmandu, Apr. 2: Almost two years after the Gorkha earthquake rattled the country, the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is going to distribute the house reconstruction grant in the additional 17 districts from Monday.

Issuing a press statement on Sunday, the reconstruction body informed that the first installment of the grant, Rs. 50,000 from the total grant of Rs. 300,000, would be distributed to the households that lost their shelter in the devastating earthquake in 2015.

"NRA chief executive officer Dr. Govinda Raj Pokharel will commence the distribution of the grant money by distributing the amount at Lumle of Kaski district," read the statement.

 Government survey team has concluded the survey of 2,238 households in 34 village development committees and municipalities and listed 163 households in the list of beneficiaries.

The NRA said that it received a list of 586 families eligible for the grants from 17 districts – Arghakhanchi, Baglung, Bhojpur, Dhankuta, Gulmi, Kaski, Khotang, Lamjung, Myagdi, Nawalparasi, Palpa, Parbat, Sankhuwasabha, Syangja, Chitwan, Solukhmubu and Tanahun.

"Statistics of the remaining 177 VDCs and municipalities is being integrated. But, data collection work has been affected in three VDCs of Solukhumbu district due to snowfall," said joint secretary of the NRA Manohar Ghimire.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, an agency under the National Planning Commission responsible for the data collection, additional survey teams would be mobilized in those areas for data collection.

 The reconstruction body has approved the distribution of first installment of the grant to 15,743 quake-affected families whose data was collected earlier.

It said that the Executive Committee would approve the remaining list of beneficiaries soon.

The NRA has distributed the first installation to about 98 per cent of the quake-hit families in the severely hit 14 districts including the Kathmandu Valley. A small number of families have received the second installment of the grant, Rs. 150,000.

According to earlier estimates there are about 100,000 quake-affected households in the 17 districts.