Dhankuta, December 25

Though majority of earthquake victims have finished construction of their homes in Dhankuta so far, only a handful of them have managed to receive the final instalment of the housing grant after the technicians refused to recommend the same citing some technical issues.

As per reports, around 90 per cent of the victims of the 2015 earthquakes have finished construction of their homes so far. However, majority of them have failed to get the final instalment of housing grant after the technicians assigned by the National Reconstruction Authority refused to recommend the same.

The technicians are learnt to have refused to cooperate raising issues such as non-compliance with the required criteria and pre-construction estimate and taking issue regarding the construction of houses without any prior consultation with technicians. Some of the victims at Ghaletar of Dhankuta Municipality 4 even shared their plight of having to pay some commission to get the recommendation.

Bijaya Mishra, a quake victim of Dhankuta Municipality 5 lamented that he had yet to get the second instalment of the housing grant although the house construction was finished one year ago.

There are 2,799 beneficiaries of the housing grant in all the seven local bodies of the district. Of them, some 2,642 victims have managed to claim the first instalment of the grant so far.

“There are additional 165 victims selected for retrofitting. Of them, 72 victims have also obliged themselves with Rs 50,000 of the first instalment,” said District Project Implementation Unit Project Chief Thirendra Dahal.

Meanwhile, some 145 beneficiaries of the housing grant haven’t turned up to claim even a single instalment. Likewise, 377 have claimed only the first instalment.