Kavre, April 23

The reconstruction work launched by National Reconstruction Authority has failed to pick up momentum in Kavre.

Though the NRA has started reaching agreement on the grant assistance amount with quake victims for the construction of their houses, its work has become too sluggish.

NRA began signing agreement on grant assistance of Rs 50,000 from April 10 at Rabiopi VDC. However, the work has failed to move ahead as expected. In the past two weeks, agreement has been reached with only 206 tremor victims.

READ ALSO

• No end in sight to the suffering of people

Acting Chief and Senior Divisional Engineer Homnath Paudel at NRA Sub-regional Office, Kavre, said that work to sign the agreement on grant assistance with temblor victims was delayed as the work of reaching agreement with quake victims was new for the staffers deployed in the field.

Since the prerogative of signing the agreement on grant assistance amount has been handed to the VDC secretary, he/she has to look into all the documents in detail.

Section Officer Chanchal Kumar Khadka at NRA Sub-regional Office, Kavre, said that work was delayed as the staffers deployed to sign the agreement on grant assistance amount were new to the job.

Khadka admitted that work could not gather pace as they had to inform the earthquake victims about the agreement procedure and change of technology.

According to Khadka, five desks have been set up for location inquiry, investigation, verification, agreement and complaint registration. He said that his office would extend grant assistance amount agreement to other VDCs as well. “We are also planning to lay the foundation stone of some houses after April 26,” said Khadka.

A source at NRA said that work on the agreement of grant assistance amount could not take place at other VDCS and municipalities as the final report on data of quake victims was yet to come. The NRA has deployed as many as 18 staffers, including volunteers from some NGOs for the agreement on grant aid amount.

Quake victims had received warm clothes at the end of winter though the government had announced it would provide clothes to the victims in winter.

A total of 17,667 quake victim families from Panchkhal, Banepa, and Panauti Municipality and Gauri Bisayuna, Deupur and Tukucha Nala VDCs had received relief amount of Rs 10,000 a month ago.

For want of relief, many quake victims were forced to live in the open. The government had distributed relief for construction of makeshift tents to quake victims five months after the earthquake struck the country. Quake victims have been living in tents and shanties constructed with the rubble collected from devastated houses.

As many as 2,079 institutional structures suffered damaged due to the devastating quake of April 25 last year in Kavre. A total of 318 citizens were killed, while 50,270 houses were completely damaged. A total of 23,784 houses suffered partial damage. As many as 638 schools, 385 temples, 31 community buildings, 129 drinking water and irrigation projects, 109 monasteries, viharas and stupas were damaged.

Likewise, 102 private organisations, 96 sub-health posts, and health posts, 74 cooperative buildings, 59 VDC buildings, 39 hydroelectricity projects and 35 youth clubs suffered damage.

Similarly, the earthquake took a heavy toll on the development work. A budget of Rs 200 million was frozen in 2014/15 fiscal year.

Ram Bahadur Khadka, Chief at District Financial Controller Office Kavre, said most government offices had up to 40 per cent of the budget frozen. After the quake, more than 80 million rupees was frozen when building construction work in Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Ramechhap under the Dhulikhel-based Urban Development and Building Division Office Kavre was disrupted. Similarly, over Rs 2 million budget of Drinking Water and Sanitation Division Office was frozen.