The executive committee of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has endorsed 6,282 additional beneficiaries in the list of households eligible to obtain grant provided by the government to reconstruct private homes damaged by the earthquake on April 25, 2015. A notice published by the authority has stated that 5,265 households have been identified as beneficiaries while remaining 1,017 households have been listed as possible beneficiaries.

According to the authority mandated to carry reconstruction drive, the newly added beneficiaries are from nine quake impacted districts – Dhading, Kavrepalanchok, Lalitpur, Makwanpur, Nuwakot, Okhaldhunga, Ramechap, Sindhuli and Sindhupalchok.  

The NRA has listed additional 2,857 households in the list of beneficiaries obtaining retrofitting grant. “We have been conducting re-survey in several locations and inducting eligible households to the list of beneficiaries. The re-survey has been initiated after receiving 237,000 complaints,” Krishna Prasad Dawadi, spokesperson at the NRA said.

In the immediate aftermath of the Gorkha Earthquake, the government had decided to provide Rs200,000 for each household in rebuilding aid. It was later increased to Rs300, 000 to be distributed in three instalments of Rs50, 000, Rs150, 000 and Rs100, 000 to ensure that the quake survivors rebuild quake-resilient homes in line with the standards and designs specified by the government. The government had decided to release Rs100, 000 for retrofitting structures in the 14 districts worst hit by the earthquake.

The NRA had deployed 332 engineers from mid-August 2017 to mid-December 2017 initiating survey. As many as 160,000 households from 73 local units of 12 districts have been resurveyed so far.

The NRA has stated that one can seek review of the decision via District Level Project Implementation Units within 35 days if they do not agree with the decision. Likewise, grant agreement with the newly enlisted beneficiaries will be conducted on the recommendation of local authorities.

Before this, the authority had validated complaints filed by 18,578 households, giving them the status of beneficiaries while 6,736 households were marked ineligible for obtaining rebuilding grants.