Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the government would mobilise home-grown human resource for reconstructing quake-ravaged infrastructure. 

The government is ending the tendency of rewarding foreign consultants this time, the PM said while address an award function “Design Competition of Rural Housing 2015-2016” organised by the Nepal Engineers’ Association in collaboration with United Nations Development Program. 

“We are ending tendency of spending Rs 4 billion out of total Rs 5 billion allocated for the projects on foreign consultancies. Our own technical experts will be used for the reconstruction,” said PM Oli, claiming the country already has a pool of experienced and capable Nepali engineers for reconstruction projects. 

On delay in delivering relief and reconstruction, he blamed the erstwhile Sushil Koirala government for not re-endorsing National Reconstruction Act introduced through Parliament and formulating other laws to fast-track reconstruction process. “Congress did not do anything for six months while it was at the helm. It is now passing the buck on us, which makes no sense at all,” Oli said.

More than eight months after the April 25 earthquake, the government has just appointed the chief executive of National Reconstruction Authority, the central body responsible for rebuilding quake-ravaged infrastructure.