Only 375,715 of the total 533,454 receive first tranche
KATHMANDU, Sept 20: The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has failed to meet its own deadline for distributing the first tranche of housing grant to all eligible victims whose homes were completely destroyed in last year's earthquake. 

Launching a special campaign on August 16, the NRA had announced that it would complete the task of signing grant agreements with the total 533,454 house owners in 11 earthquake hit districts and transfer the first tranche to their bank account by the next one month.  

By the end of one month on September 16, the NRA was able to sign grant agreements with 447,359 of the total identified house owners.  Of them, only 375,715 house owners have received Rs 50,000, the first tranche of the total housing grant of Rs 200,000. 

As many as 17 per cent of the total victims are yet to sign the grant agreement while only 70 per cent of the total victims have received the first tranche so far.   

NRA's Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyewali had announced the campaign after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal directed the authority to complete the grant distribution within the next 45 days at any cost. 

Of the total 30,238 identified house owners in Makwanpur, only 8,265 victims have received the first tranche.

Likewise, of the total 11,236 victims in Rasuwa, only 6,042 victims have received Rs 50,000, while of the total 34,256 victims in Sindhuli, only 19,162 have received the first installment. 

In Kavre, of 67,665 victims, 46,738 have received the first tranche. 

In Sindhupalchowk, 71,157 of the total 78,537 victims have received the first installment. Likewise, in Dolakha, 41779 of the total 51,762 victims have received the grant.

While 17,003 of the total 19,818 victims have received the money in Okhaldhunga, 36,762 of the total 65,772 quake victims in Nuwakot district and 38,495 of the total 43,607 victims in Ramechhap have received it so far.  

"Let me make it clear that not all of the identified victims will come forward to claim the grant money. In the one-month campaign, we have signed grant agreements with over 83 per cent of the victims, which is a remarkable achievement," NRA Secretary Madhusudan Adhikari said.  

He said that signing grant agreement with all the victims was challenging due to geographical difficulties as well as other administrative reasons. 

"Some victims' names appeared from two different places. Some have problems in producing landownership proof. Some did not appear for the grant agreement. So, we have not been able to sign grant agreement with all the victims," he said.

  He said that the grant agreement in districts like Makawanpur and Rasuwa was slow due to absence of VDC secretaries. "In Makwanpur, the Local District Officer got ill and it took a while for a new LDO to get transferred there. So, only few victims have received the grant.

Likewise, many villages are still without secretaries, delaying the grant distribution process," he said.

 The NRA had also said that during the coming one month it would also take up 173,586 of the complaints related to the grant amounts lodged by victims in the 11 districts. But the hearing has not also been done.  

 
• national reconstruction authority
 
• quake victims
 
• first tranche
 
• earthquake