Aid agreements for housing reconstruction have been halted in Gorkha, the epicentre of last year’s earthquake, due to shortage of forms and human resource.

Aid agreements are yet to be signed in at least three VDCs, but the process, initiated by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) for reconstruction of houses, has been halted.

NRA officials informed that they ran out of forms after signing aid agreements with around 2,000 quake victims of Barpak and Hansapur.

Officials said they won’t be able start aid agreement process in Gumda, Muchchok and Saurpani VDCs until a fresh stock of forms arrives.

Moreover, human resource crunch at the sub-regional office of the NRA as well as in local bodies also has affected the post-earthquake reconstruction.

Of the total 60 VDCs in Gorkha, 14 VDCs are without secretaries now.

The NRA office has just four employees, including an office assistant, despite a provision of 14 employees.

Satish Kumar Bhattarai, a planning officer at the District Development Committee, informed that the aid agreement process has been halted due to shortage of forms. “We have asked the centre to dispatch forms immediately,” he added.

As per the data available at the local administration, some 34,000 agreement forms are needed in the district.

“We have repeatedly asked the centre to provide us with agreement forms, but they send only 2,000-3,000 forms,” said an employee at the DDC.