Khotang, February 15

People’s representatives of various local levels in Khotang have said that hundreds of genuine earthquake victims are still deprived of state grants meant for reconstruction of their quake-damaged houses due to various technical difficulties in the district.

An interaction was organised with the chairmanship of National Reconstruction Authority Chief Executive Officer Yuba Raj Bhusal and by the District Coordination Committee Secretariat Okhaldhunga in Diktel of Khotang. People’s representatives complained that scores of quake victims had not received the grants yet.

Rupakot-Majhuwagadi Municipality Mayor Deep Narayan Rijal said reconstruction was badly affected as the NRA had failed to deploy engineers and technicians to the victims’ settlements.

Sakela Rural Municipality Chairperson Arjun Khadka said victims had not received any grant as the account holders of victim families were abroad, some of them had died while some others were physically disabled. As a result, some of them were yet to receive Rs 50,000 — the first instalment amount.

“The NRA sent the engineers after we urged them several times but we came to learn that the bank account holders were abroad for foreign employment, some of them had died, while some were physically disabled,” said Chairperson Khadka.

He drew the attention of the NRA CEO Bhusal to the fact that some of the genuine victims were excluded from the list of beneficiaries as well.

Halesi-Tuwachung Municipality Ward 4 Chairperson Kishor Kumar Basnet said quake victims had been deprived of their second instalment due to lack of engineers in the municipality.

Meanwhile, District Coordination Committee Residence Grants Focal Person Rabi Kiran Acharya said as many as 381 earthquake victims of the 8,443 victims had not been provided the grants yet in the district.