Half the amount of money meant to purchase land plots for 150 earthquake victims in various local units of Ramechhap has not yet reached their beneficiaries.

Although the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) had announced to provide Rs200,000 each to the 150 quake-affected families to purchase land plots in the district, only 77 families have received the amount so far.

According to the District Project Implementation Unit of the NRA, the victims demand on building new houses in their native land, despite knowing that the land is prone to incidents of Natural Disasters.

“People are not willing to purchase land plots and build houses according to the recommendations of technicians and local representatives,” said Unit official Damodar Ghimire, adding the government will only provide housing reconstruction aid to the families who build their houses in safe locations.

Geologists had declared the region as a landslide-risk zone and recommended the authorities to move the villages to safer locations.

As per the record of the District Project Implementation Unit, a majority of the quake victims of Khimti have not received the grant to purchase land plots in the district. Of the 53 victims from Khimti, only five have received Rs 200,000. Officials said that eight families from Pharpu and three families from Puranagau have not received the grant yet.  

According to the District Secretariat of the NRA, around 42,000 families have signed the housing aid agreement in Ramechhap. Among them, around 35,000 families are building new houses and around 10,000 families are waiting for the third installment of the housing aid.  Only 7,000 families have received the third instalment of the aid.

24pc victims build new homes in Makwanpur

HETAUDA: Around 24 percent of earthquake victims have built their new houses in Makwanpur district in the last 39 months. Chief of the District Project Implementation Unit Somnath Timilsina said 7,835 quake victims constructed their houses in the district so far. According to the data of the Unit Office, 33,266 quake victims signed the housing reconstruction aid agreement with the NRA in the district. Of them, 17,445 quake victims received second tranche of the aid whereas 9,883 families received third instalment of the aid, said engineer of the unit office Rabin Pathak.