The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has formed a committee to find ways to distribute housing reconstruction aid to those quake-affected families of 14 districts who do not have land ownership certificates or any proof of owning a house.

A meeting of NRA Executive Committee chaired NRA chief Govinda Raj Pokharel on Tuesday decided to form such a committee which will be coordinated by Executive Committee Member Dhruba Prasad Sharma. The committee will work to find ways to provide housing aid to those who lost their houses to the 2015 earthquake but have not been identified as “beneficiaries” by the NRA for they lack land ownership certificates or other papers as proof of owning a house.

The Sharma-led committee, which also has Janardan Guragain, chief of the Administrative Committee of the NRA, has been asked to submit a draft report within a week outlining suggestions and ways to provide housing aid to such quake-affected families who have been left out.

A total of 636,036 household have been identified by the NRA as beneficiaries in 14 quake-affected districts. Housing aid agreements have been signed with 548,255 beneficiaries so far. However, there are 77,781 families who have been identified as quake-affected but have not been included in the list of beneficiaries for they lack land ownership certificates or other papers as proof of owning a house. Failure to include them in the list could deprive them of Rs 300,000 in housing aid which the government is distributing in three tranches.

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee meeting has also added 44,443 households to the list of beneficiaries in the second phase after completing assessment in 17 districts that were less affected by the quake.

All the necessary processes and criteria will be taken into consideration while distributing the housing aid to these newly added beneficiaries.

The Executive Committee in the first phase had added 15,743 beneficiaries from 17 districts to the list. Distribution of the first tranche of Rs 50,000 started in these 17 districts on Monday.

An NRA meeting held on February 27, chaired by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, had proposed Rs 100,000 in lump sum to those who are occupying forest land and public spaces so that they can buy land and build houses. The meeting had decided that the proposal would apply to those families who were squatters when the earthquake hit the country in 2015.

For long, the NRA was indecisive about assisting landless families in rebuilding their houses damaged or destroyed in the April 25 earthquake. The families living in public land and buildings, whose members do not own property elsewhere, would be eligible to the sum, CEO Pokharel had said during the February 27 meeting.