Valley
NRA set to mobilise local reps in 2 weeks
The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has expedited the process of mobilising newly-elected representatives in earthquake affected districts in the next couple of weeks.Sanjeev Giri
The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has expedited the process of mobilising newly-elected representatives in earthquake affected districts in the next couple of weeks. The process of preparing guidelines to rope in local representatives is in final stage, according to the agency mandated for managing the earthquake recovery and reconstruction process.
Once ratified by the NRA, the guidelines will be circulated in earthquake affected districts. A campaign will then be launched for explaining details and spirit of the guidelines to the local representatives.
“One of the key reasons behind roping in local representatives is to build efficient coordination mechanism between beneficiaries and the authority,” said NRA Spokesperson Yam Lal Bhusal. “Through local representatives we will get to know actual position of beneficiaries.”
While the number of complaints from beneficiaries and earthquake survivors remains high, there is not efficient mechanism to deal with it. The NRA is planning to mobilise local representatives, including mayor, deputy mayor, chiefs and deputy chiefs of village council for sorting out issues at the local level.
The NRA aims to mitigate issues in a particular ward through mechanism. If that is not possible, the case will be taken to the head of village council or municipality and then eventually to a committee formed at the central level. The move is expected to help the NRA streamline the process of acknowledging complaints and addressing them.
The NRA also has a plan of awarding reconstruction projects related to drinking water supply and irrigation, among others, to the local body.
“Local representatives themselves are willing to engage in the reconstruction drive. And once they are involved, it will be easier for us to find out all kind of details,” Bhusal said.
As of Sunday, the NRA has signed deals with 614,103 households out of 744,620 beneficiaries in 31 affected districts for providing grant for rebuilding houses. Among them, 578,156 households have received first instalment of house rebuilding grant, while 33,408 and 1,814 households have received second and third instalments respectively.
While most of the households have acquired the first tranche of grant, only few have received the second instalment. According to Bhusal, most of the households have not initiated the process of acquiring second instalment, while a few households had been disapproved as they did not comply with NRA’s reconstruction directive. “Through this mechanism we will get to know exact situation of each household,” he said.