National
NRA work stalls without a CEO
The process of extending deadline for obtaining second tranche of housing grant has been in limbo as the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is without Chief Executive Officer.The process of extending deadline for obtaining second tranche of housing grant has been in limbo as the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is without Chief Executive Officer.
Yubaraj Bhusal had stepped down as the NRA chief in the second week of July, following the Oli-government’s decision on July 5 to revoke all the political appointments made by the erstwhile government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba after August 30, 2017.
A meeting of the NRA Advisory Council scheduled on July 6, which was supposed to take call over the matter, did not convene due to the government decision which had revoked the appointment of NRA CEO.
NRA Deputy Spokesperson Manohar Ghimire said, “There would certainly be repercussions over the top position at the NRA which is vacant at the moment. There are a number of issues that need to be resolved,”
He, however, claimed that the process of distributing the second tranche of aid was ongoing as the authority had already advised the stakeholders concerned to do so.
Apart from the distribution of grant, Ghimire shared with the Post that the task of addressing grievances too has come to a halt in the absence of CEO.
The NRA has received 237,085 grievances from the quake survivors so far. Out of that, the NRA has so far reviewed 205,584 cases.
A frequent change in NRA leadership due to political meddling has severely hit the reconstruction process even though three years have passed since the horrifying disaster struck the country that killed nearly 9,000 lives, leaving tens of thousands homeless.
The authority had set mid-July 2018 deadline for quake survivors to obtain Rs150,000—the biggest chunk in Rs300,000 housing reconstruction aid handed out by the government.
According to the agency mandated to carry out the reconstruction works post the Gorkha Earthquake, around 250,000 households have yet to receive second tranche of the government aid.
Following the earthquake, the government decided to provide Rs200,000 per household in private housing rebuilding aid. It later increased it to Rs300,000 to be distributed in three installments—Rs 50,000, Rs 150,000 and Rs 100,000.
The NRA also has to address several other issues urgently as the meeting of the NRA Advisory Council and Steering Committee cannot convene in the absence of chief executive.