NRA finds fault with Amnesty report

Kathmandu, Apr. 27: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Thursday said that its attention had been drawn to the Amnesty International report ‘Building Inequality: The failure of the Nepali government to protect the marginalised in post-earthquake reconstruction efforts, 2017.”

Issuing a press statement, the agency responsible for the post-quake reconstruction, said that it was taking proactive action to support vulnerable and marginalised survivors.

Saying that there was no denying of the sad reality that the reconstruction process was slow and could not pick up the speed as expected in the aftermath of the disaster, the NRA said, “But the government and NRA as its focal agency on reconstruction remain vigilant of the fact that disaster disproportionately affects the women, poor and marginalised communities, including people with disability. In order to help the marginalised and poor communities, the NRA has begun simplifying procedures to distributing aid.”

The Amnesty report said that the government failed to provide relief to the marginalised earthquake survivors, breaching both the Constitution and international human rights law.
“Tens of thousands of people, whose destroyed houses once stood on land that they do not own, have been locked out of the reconstruction programme. To receive a government rebuilding grant, an earthquake survivor must provide land ownership documents. Unable to prove they own the land on which they were living when the earthquake struck, or have their landlords formally acknowledge their residence, they have been denied reconstruction support to rebuild their homes,” read the report.

But the NRA has already submitted two proposals to the cabinet – to provide Rs. 200,000 grant to every household and to earthquake survivors without land ownership certificates and are living on public land.

The grant is being provided to support them to buy land to build a house.

A study to identify vulnerable settlements conducted under the leadership of NRA has recommended more than 2,751 families have to be relocated to safer places.

Nearly 10,000 households have also been identified as earthquake survivors without land.

Those families will be entitled an additional Rs. 200,000 per family grant on top of the Rs. 300,000 house reconstruction grants.

“In addition, the NRA has taken a series of measures to proactively assist the women, poor and the marginalised communities. Vulnerable communities receiving housing assistance from I/NGOs or government are eligible to receive an additional Rs. 50,000 from I/NGOs,” read the statement.

“Vulnerable communities opting for low cost housing can access the second and the third installment from I/NGOs even if they have received the first tranche of grant from the government together without hassle.”