NRA bars quake-victims from buildng house in adjecent districts

Biratnagar, Jan 16: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has revised its earlier decision to allow the quake-affected families to build their house in the adjacent districts of their home district.

It had allowed the quake-victims to move to adjacent districts to facilitate the households at the risk of landslides due to quake-ravaged hills but as many families in safer areas tried to move to cities in the neighbouring districts, the NRA had revised its earlier decision.

"If any family had obtained permit to move to another district, they would be facilitated for the same, but the provision has been cut short for new applicants other than the inhabitants of the areas at risks of quake-propelled landslides of the 14 severely-hit districts," said Yam Lal Bhoosal, NRA Spokesperson.

According to the NRA, it would be problematic for database management as well as providing technical and other assistance for the families that were not listed as beneficiaries in the destination districts.

The reconstruction body in October 2017 had decided to permit the quake-affected families of severely-hit districts to build their houses in the neighbouring districts.

But the destination district should also be categorised as a quake-affected area.

The NRA had revised its Procedure on Distribution of Grand for Reconstruction of Houses, 2016 to facilitate the families to move to safer locations while the Reconstruction Act 2015 bars the quake-hit families to build houses in other than 31 affected districts.

The families of the risky areas would be entitled the grant of Rs. 200,000 and Rs. 300,000 to buy the land and construct a house respectively in the new locations.

Meanwhile, the NRA said that 47,889 families have been identified as eligible for the third instalment of the house reconstruction grant.

"About 245,469 houses are under construction in the quake-hit areas while 88,011 houses were already rebuild by Tuesday," said the reconstruction body.

However, of the 767,705 identified beneficiary-households, only 668,499 have obtained the first instalment of the Rs. 300,000 house grant.

The NRA has so far received 205,634 compliant through various channels including Hello Sarkar, District Project Implementation Offices and other government agencies, and addressed 205,584 of them.

In July last year, the NRA had set the deadline to collect the entire housing grant, of all three instalments, by mid-July 2018 with an aim of persuading the beneficiaries to build the house and speed up the grant distribution process.