Sindhupalchowk, Sept 5: The monsoon-induced disaster victims here have not yet received grant amount for the past three months.
There are complaints that the
beneficiaries have not been able to get due amount for the construction of the
house in the previous fiscal year.
Panchpokhari Thangpal rural
municipality chair Tashi Lama said the construction of the houses has started, but
the installment amount has not been paid as the grant amount has not been
paid.
"Some people have rebuilt
their houses on loan, and the beneficiaries hopeful to repay loan from the
government grants have been facing problems due to non-release of the grant
amount", he said.
Due to delay in the construction of
houses, the affected people are forced to live in risky places.
Rabi Raj Dhital, disaster focal
person at the District Administration Office, said the Integrated Work
Procedure is being prepared by amending the Work Procedure, 2077 BS, adding
payment process has been delayed due to the reason.
He said National Reconstruction
Authority (NRA) has stopped the payment in the pretext of formulating a new
integrated work procedure including the earthquake victims of western Nepal in
its scope and providing the grant amount by constructing houses
accordingly.
Dhital said that the problem will
be resolved as soon as the procedure is finalized. As many as 1,893 families
have been affected by monsoon-related disasters, according to the data of
beneficiaries as per the reconstruction and rehabilitation procedure of private
houses affected by monsoon-related disasters prepared by the NRA in 2077
BS.
However, there is no exact data of
the people affected by the monsoon-related disasters before.
According to the procedure prepared
in 2077 BS, provision has been made to provide grant amount of Rs 500,000 in
mountainous districts, Rs 400,000 in hilly districts and Rs 300,000 in Tarai
districts for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of houses affected by the
disaster-related incidents that took place after May 2020.
Sindhupalchowk falls within the
mountainous district. According to the working procedure, the federal
government will bear 55 percent in the case of the municipality and 60 percent
in the case of the rural municipality. Likewise, the province is obliged to
bear 30 percent, rural municipality 10 percent and municipality 15
percent.
Melamchi Municipality Mayor Aitman
Tamang said though the local governments had sent the details of the
flood-affected people to the District Disaster Management Committee for
necessary decisions, the grant amount had not been paid to the victims due to
the procedure.
Hari Sharan Shrestha, a local of
Melamchi-11, a flood victim, complained that even after three years of the
house being washed away by the floods of 2021 and subsequent floods in Melamchi
and Indrawati rivers, there has been a problem due to lack of funds for reconstruction.
"There was assurance of giving
money on installment basis, but due to lack of regular payment, many victims
who have constructed houses by taking loans are facing problems", he
said.
The flood had taken away the house
of Asmita Danuwar, a local of Phatte of Melamchi municipality-11. Her family
has been forced to live in tents.
Asmita complained that she has been
compelled to pay the interest of the loan taken from microfinance when the
installment did not come on time even though the process of construction of the
house started. The houses of the beneficiaries who have been established as per
the procedure have not yet been fully reconstructed. (RSS)