Election delays reconstruction process

Kathmandu, Aug. 26: The local elections and adjustment of internal accounts of the government offices at the end of the fiscal year have affected the reconstruction process.

Both have created obstructions in the distribution of the reconstruction grants to the quake-affected families for more than a month, and slowed down the grant distribution and house reconstruction works.

According to the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) deputy-spokesperson Dr. Bhishma Kumar Bhusal, the local elections changed the political and administrative structure of the local government, and it took more than a month to overcome the transition period after the polls.

“Similarly, the District Treasury Controller Offices (DTCOs) were busy in auditing and making adjustments in government accounts. Auditing is still going on in some of the districts. We hope that it will be completed in about a week,” he said.

Although the NRA had claimed that about 150,000 houses would be reconstructed by the end of monsoon, only 650 new houses were built in August.

The statistics don’t look impressive as, according to NRA statistics, 119,687 houses are under construction, and 47,199 houses have been already reconstructed.

Similarly, the third tranche of the reconstruction grant has been deposited into the bank accounts of 3,776 households, up by 1,000 from last month.

But, the government has distributed the third instalment of the grant to only about 15 per cent of the households.

More than 85 per cent households that completed the houses received the grant money from the national and international Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).

Dr. Bhusal said that the NGOs have deployed their engineers in the field who conduct timely inspection of the house under construction and recommend for the grant while the government engineers and grant distribution were affected due to elections and internal adjustments.

He said that I/NGOs are supporting about 12,000 families in reconstructing their houses.

Initially, I/NGOs wanted to support 100,000 families but as there was delay in releasing their money, the quake-affected families applied for the government grants.

As per the rules, a family can obtain the grant money either from the government or I/NGOs.

The NRA said that the grant agreement was signed with 635,272 households, and 603,690 families have received the first instalment of the money.

Likewise, the second instalment was received by 62,552 families.

Of the 996,162 families surveyed, 765,618 were included in the beneficiaries’ list.