Deadline for collecting housing grants extended

Kathmandu, Feb 9: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has extended the deadline for collecting the second tranche of the housing grant till April 13 this year. 

A meeting of the NRA Steering Committee took the decision to extend the deadline which was earlier set for mid-January 2018, on Friday. 

The NRA, in July 2017, had directed the quake victims in the government beneficiaries’ list to collect the first instalment of the grant by mid-November 2017, and entire amount by mid-July 2018. 

Through the directives, the reconstruction body wanted to persuade the beneficiaries to build the house at the earliest and speed up the grant distribution and reconstruction process. 

According to NRA statistics, of the total 767,705 beneficiaries, only 166,320 households have received the second tranche and 234,455 households have been identified eligible for it. 

Only 41,003 families have received the third instalment while 64,751 families have applied for it.

By February 9, construction of 95,434 houses is completed and 288,653 houses are under construction in the quake-affected districts. 

Addressing the meeting Chair of the Steering Committee Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed satisfaction over the reconstruction progress. He said that despite various challenges, the reconstruction had caught desirable speed. 

Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the government was putting efforts to manage funds for the additional economic burden created by the incumbent government’s decision increase the house grant by Rs. 100,000. 

According to him, the World Bank has agreed to provide Rs. 400 million loan support which could be used to subsidize the additional grant money. 

The Deuba government had decided to raise the house grant to Rs. 400,000 from the Rs. 300,000 through a Cabinet decision a couple of weeks ago. 

Earlier, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda administration had raised the grant money to Rs. 300,000 from Rs. 200,000. 

Vice-chair of the committee and UML Vice-chair Bhim Rawal urged all the parties to support the reconstruction process. 

He said that the frequent change in the leadership of the NRA had affected the reconstruction process and there was a doubt whether the rebuilding process was the priority of the government. 

However, Chief Executive Officer of the NRA Yuba Raj Bhusal maintained that despite challenges like shortage technical manpower and masons, the reconstruction works was about to meet the 50 per cent target. 

Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission Swarnim Wagle said that the government was mulling to hold another donors conference to raise funds to fill the gap of reconstruction budget.

The International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction (ICNR) in 2015 had garnered the commitment of about Rs. 400 billion for the post-quake reconstruction. 

Published in The Rising Nepal Daily on 10 January 2018.