NRA disburses Rs. 53 billion for grant

Kathmandu, Aug. 2: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Wednesday disbursed Rs. 53 billion in house reconstruction grants to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD).

NRA spokesperson Yam Lal Bhoosal said that the money was sent to the Central Programme Implementation Unit (CPIU) at the MoFALD with the aim of completing the construction of private houses within a year.

The reconstruction body has set a one-year deadline to complete the house construction.

“We don’t want a shortage of grant money when the beneficiaries are demanding first, second and third instalments,” said Bhoosal.

The CPIU will distribute the money to the beneficiaries in the quake-hit districts.

The NRA has developed an action plan to distribute all the grant money to the quake-affected families within the current fiscal year 2017/18.

It has also sought the support from the newly elected representatives of the local units in distributing the grant and addressing the grievances and complaints.

The government has distributed the first tranche of the grant to 603,053 families of the 724,895 identified beneficiaries.

Grant agreement has been signed with 631,082 quake-affected households.

But the distribution of the second and third instalments of the grant money is sluggish as only 55,754 families have received the second and 2,797 families the third instalment in the 14 severely hit districts.

However, the NRA has claimed that the process has been expedited to distribute the grant money in the moderately hit 17 districts, too.

According to it, 115,049 houses are under construction while 46,555 houses have been already reconstructed.