KATHMANDU- The reconstruction in the country is found sluggish as even the construction of private houses has not gained momentum even in four years after the devastating earthquake.
The survey carried out by the National Reconstruction Authority recorded1,360,000 houses as the damaged ones and mentioned 812,000 people as prospective beneficiaries for the grants. 776,900 thousand house owners signed the contract for reconstruction.
The record at NRA shows that 768,500 thousand beneficiaries received the first installment of the donation whereas the number of people receiving the second installment went down to 616,270 thousand. It also revealed the number of people receiving the third installment as 513690 thousand.
ManoharGhimire, the co-spokesperson of the Authority, informed Khabarhub that the deadline for claiming the first installment is already over. Although the deadline for claiming the second installment is expiring on 16th Nov. only 472000 thousand houses are completed. If all 666488 houses are included in the list, the achievement scale in construction reaches 60 percent.
The Act Made to Provide for the Reconstruction Earthquake Affected Structures,2015 has fixed the term of the Authority as 5 years. In that case, the legal term for the Authority itself is only 14 months left now. Can it make the rest 40 percent reconstruction within the set deadlines? “We are working hard to complete the reconstruction of private houses within this financial year, whereas the construction works for the houses added after their complaint is likely to take some more time.”
If for any reason reconstruction work is not completed within that period, the Government of Nepal may either extend the term of the “Authority for one year or make necessary arrangements so that another body performs the functions being performed by the Authority in accordance with this Act,” provisions Clause 3(3) of the Act.
50000 complaints in 4.5 years!
Owing to the Authority’s failure to identify and understand the real concerns of the earthquake victims, the Authority has received nearly 5 00000 complaints. The Authority has added 1, 33,000 beneficiaries after investigating the complaints it received in its first phase.
The survey has conducted another survey from Chaitra, 2075 to Shrawan 2076 which has collected 190000 data now in the analysis phase. The authority blames the large number of the complaint it has got from the public for the slackness and makes the promises to perform more efficiently provided it gets the name of the ‘genuine’ victims.
The Authority Committed to Claim back the grant amount from the Defaulter
The Authority has initiated action against the defaulter of the grant amount. It has removed 62000 eligible beneficiaries from the list for not showing interest in executing the reconstruction work as per the provisions. The government has asked the reconstruction grant receivers of the first installment who have not started the reconstruction to submit the grant back to the government.
The policy enforced since last year has made 200 beneficiaries return the grant. Factors behind slackness in reconstruction of the private houses.
Ghimire holds the local government’s inability to take timely and efficient decisions as one of the major factors accountable for the tardiness in reconstruction. “The issues related to the tranche, private house reconstruction, etc. should have been monitored by the local government, the lack of cooperation from them is busying the Authority entangled in the minor issues,” Ghimire told Khabarhub.
Tardiness in monitoring, formalities in the grant hand over, insufficient skilled manpower, lack of sufficient land, social and mental backwardness, lack of coordination between the agencies involved in the reconstruction are major factors responsible for the slackness in the work.
Rs. 50,000 more to come to the newly listed 18,000 households
As per the government policy of addressing the social security issues related to the poor and in-risk families, single women above 65 years, senior citizens above 70 years, orphan children below 16 years and the physically disabled people with Red and Blue Cards, 18505 people from 32 districts shall receive Rs 50000 more soon.
There is the provision of providing loans to economically backward people. Nepal Government has provisioned to provide 5-year loan not exceeding Rs 300000 at a 5% interest rate.
276 billion spent for 60% !
The Authority has estimated Rs 630 billion rupees as the prospective reconstruction cost for the private houses of which 276 billion has already been spent for the reconstruction of 60 percent private houses affected by the earthquake. The budget allocated for the current fiscal year is 141 billion rupees.
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