Over thousand earthquake victims seek housing grant

Dolakha, February 13

Some 1,455 earthquake victims of Dolakha, whose homes had been mistakenly included in the list of those to-be-retrofitted despite their homes being destroyed by the quake completely, are waiting for the authorities to change their status and include them on the list of beneficiaries of housing grant.

According to sources at the National Reconstruction Authority District Project Implementation Unit Donation Management and Local Infrastructure Office of Dolakha, some 1,503 of the 2,633 households selected for the list of the to-be-retrofitted homes had sought to be identified as beneficiaries for housing grant citing the destruction of their homes in the 2015 quakes.

“Though we had recommended to the centre to include those victims on the list of beneficiaries of housing grant, only 45 of them were so identified,” said the Donation Management and Local Infrastructure office Chief Ganesh Aryal.

Of the total nine local levels in the district, Shailung Rural Municipality had the highest number of victims - 919 selected for retrofitting of their homes.

Of them, 473 had applied to the office, seeking to be identified as beneficiaries of housing grant. Eleven of those who had applied were granted their request.