Kavre, October 21

The first phase of grant agreement for the construction of houses of victims of last year’s devastating earthquake has reached final stage in Kavre.

The government had been attempting to provide the first instalment of the grant amount to quake victims before mid-October in Kavre.

Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Officer Dholak Raj Dhakal at the District Development Committee Office Kavre said they had signed agreements with as many as 58,608 victims of the district. Of them, the grant amount has already been released to 57,865 households so far, said Dhakal.

The office has started calculating the number of households withdrawing the amount of Rs 50,000 from the banks. Necessary documents have already been sent to the District Treasury Controller Office seeking grant amount for the remaining 800 families.

Though the government had directed the National Reconstruction Authority to distribute the grant by mid-October, quake victims have yet to receive the amount due to the delay in signing the grant agreement.

The District Natural Disaster Rescue Committee said the government has yet to sign the agreement with victims without land ownership documents, victims who live on guthi land, and victims who live in other places out of the village, although they were included on the list made public by the National Reconstruction Authority.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that as many as 12,000 quake victims of the district who do not own any land have been deprived of the government grant for the construction of houses. As many as 11,000 households have been deprived of the grant due to a lack of land ownership document, and around 1,000 others at Bhumlutar area and Phalate VDC do not have land ownership certificate.

Ram Bahadur Lama, chairperson of the Rights to Land Forum Kavre, said around 11,000 households have been deprived of the grant. However, they were provided with material to build temporary shelters, and other relief items.