Dolakha, July 26

As many as 14,942 private houses that were damaged in the 2015 earthquakes are yet to reconstructed in Dolakha.

As per the official data, of the 72,819 households registered for the housing grant provided by the government, 57,877 have already reconstructed their houses in the district.

Thousands of households have not received the third tranche of the grant even after completing the construction of their houses as these houses have failed to meet the government criteria. However, earthquake victims in the district have blamed local representatives and technicians for their plight.

“Though I had long finished construction of my house, I haven’t received the third instalment yet due to technicians’ carelessness.

They did not come to inspect the house when it was under-construction and now they are not approving my house saying that the house doesn’t meet the government criteria,” lamented Krishna Prasad Ghimire of Bhimeshwor-4.

Like Ghimire, a single woman of Kalinchowk Rural Municipality-6 also had to clear lots of hurdles before she got the final instalment of the grant.

As per the data made public by the National Reconstruction Authority, 84.40 per cent households have already constructed their houses in the district.

“While we’ve some 4,000-plus households who have not yet signed the contract with Nepal Reconstruction Authority, there are around 10,000 families whose houses are under-construction,” said Nepal Reconstruction Authority, Charikot, Chief Ganesh Aryal. As per the information of the Treasury Comptroller Office in Dolakha, it has so far released 17.05 billion rupees for post-quake reconstruction project in the district.

The government provides Rs 300,000 as housing grant to quake victims  in three instalments — Rs 50, 000 as the first tranche, Rs 150,000 as second and Rs 100, 000 as third tranche.