Bhaktapur, January 11

Although two-and-a-half months have elapsed since the government signed housing grant agreement with more than 19,000 quake victims families in Bhaktapur, they have yet to receive first instalment of the grant.

Earlier, the government had decided to increase the grant amount to Rs 300,000 per household from the initially announced Rs 200,000. The government is supposed to distribute the first instalment of the grant within five days of signing the grant agreement.

A total of 33,696 households in Bhaktapur were affected by the April 25 earthquake, but the National Reconstruction Authority has registered only 26,016 households, said Local Development Officer of Bhaktapur, Dhruva Bahadur Koirala .

Koirala said lack of fund had delayed grant distribution. “We have not been able to distribute grant as we not received fund from the government,” said Koirala.

Meanwhile, local authorities have been flooded with complaints from locals claiming to be genuine quake victims. They have claimed that they were missed out during data collection of quake victims.

Officials said it would take about three months for the authorities to distribute the grant amount to quake victims.