Kathmandu,
Sept. 28
About 50 per
cent families who had lost their houses in the devastating Gorkha Earthquake
2015 will be celebrating the upcoming Dashain in their newly reconstructed
homes.
In the last
three years of reconstruction drive, as much as 296,514 private houses have
been rebuilt while about 259,098 houses are now under construction, according
to the statistics of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA).
However, the
reconstruction body maintained that the number of reconstructed houses could
reach 350,000 as the data of the less-affected 18 districts is yet to come to
the NRA. It also hoped that the remaining beneficiaries would start rebuilding
their homes immediately after the Dashain and Tihar, two major festivals
celebrated in Nepal.
Spokesperson
of the NRA Pitambar Ghimire said that due to the responsibilities given to the
local bodies and the engineers who would be dispatched to the quake affected
areas soon would contribute to expediting the construction of private houses.
The NRA has
urged the beneficiaries, the local bodies, the political parties and other
concerned stakeholders to support in the national mega-campaign.
In terms of
the number of reconstructed houses, Sindhupalchowk has come first with 49,540
houses rebuilt. It is followed by Dolakha with 44,461 houses, Gorkha 36,490,
Dhading 35,661, Nuwakot 28,150, Ramechhap 23,734, Kavrepalanchok 20,752,
Sindhuli 11,110 and Okhaldhunga 10,787.
The total
number of reconstruction beneficiaries is 723,728 families and 717,964 of them
have received the first installment of the house grant, Rs. 50,000.
About 503,036
families have received the second tranche of the grant, Rs. 150,000 and 266,904
families have received the third tranche of Rs. 100,000 by now.
The number of
beneficiaries has gone up to 810,690 following the clearing the compliant
registered at the NRA and the local bodies.
The government
has distributed Rs. 1.382 billion in grant to the quake-hit families by the end
of the last fiscal year 2017/18. This year, the NRA has allocated Rs. 83.41
billion budget, and Rs. 10 billion has already been distributed so far.
The government
aims at completing the reconstruction of the private houses by the end of the
current fiscal year.
A new deadline
to obtain the housing grant has been set by the NRA Steering Committee earlier
this month. Beneficiaries who received the first installment of the grant by
mid-July this year should obtain the second installment by mid-January 2019 and
the third installment by mid-May 2019.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 September 2018.
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