NRA comes up with a time-bound plan 'to appease' PM
KATHMANDU, Nov 21: In what can be taken as a move to appease the prime minister, who is angry over the snail-paced progress in the post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation task, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Sushil Gyewali has yet again come up with a detailed time-bound action plan, aiming at expediting the delayed reconstruction work.
KATHMANDU, Nov 21: In what can be taken as a move to appease the prime minister, who is angry over the snail-paced progress in the post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation task, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Sushil Gyewali has yet again come up with a detailed time-bound action plan, aiming at expediting the delayed reconstruction work.
In a meeting of the steering committee of NRA which was convened under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dahal on Sunday, CEO Gyewali presented a detailed time-bound action plan for completing the task of reconstruction of private houses, heritage sites, public buildings as well as relocation of the risky settlements, among others. The meeting endorsed the action plan and decided to forward it to all the concerned ministries for implementation.
Five days ago, Prime Minister Dahal had called Gyewali to his official residence at Baluwatar and expressed his frustration against Gyewali for failing to expedite the reconstruction and rehabilitation works as per public expectations. Similarly, the angry prime minister had even reportedly sought written clarification from Gyewali explaining the reasons for the delay.
However, Gyewali did not come up with any clarification in the meeting but he presented the action plan and other details related to the reconstruction, informed an official at the prime minister's secretariat.
Following the endorsement of the action plan, the steering committee also directed the Ministry of Finance to release necessary budget to the NRA for effective implementation of the time-bound action plan.
Earlier, the NRA had also come up with such time-bound action plans. However, failure to implement the action plans led to delay in the overall reconstruction and rehabilitation tasks.
As per the action plan, the NRA plans to complete the process of signing grant agreements with the quake victims eligible for the grant amount in the three districts of the Kathmandu Valley by November 30. As many as 94,022 households in Lalitpur, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu have been finalized as eligible for the grant amount.
Similarly, the action plan aims to complete survey of 358 settlements at high risk of landslides following the earthquakes and identify safe places for their relocations by mid-February, 2017.
The NRA also plans to address complaints registered by quake victims in the quake-hit districts.
As many as 183,872 complaints have been registered by the quake victims in the 14 most-affected districts but not a single complaint has been resolved even after over 19 months of the devastating quakes of last year, preventing many genuine victims from receiving the housing grants.
The NRA also plans to set up reconstruction community committees in the earthquake-hit districts within the next 45 days. Each of the committee will comprise of representatives of all the political parties.
Likewise, the action plan aims at starting the reconstruction of Dharahara tower by mid-July, 2017 and also stresses on expediting reconstruction of various heritage sites at various times.
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