KATHMANDU, March 26: While the government and the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) have repeatedly announced that reconstruction and rehabilitation in the 14 districts most-affected by earthquake will be carried out on a war footing, over 125 VDCs in these very districts do not have VDC secretaries at such a crucial time.
The government and NRA have utterly failed to even ensure the presence of VDC secretaries in the districts although these junior government officials have a vital rol in distributing the grant amounts of Rs 200,000 each to victims whose homes were destroyed by last year's earthquakes.VDC secretaries constitute the only permanent presence of government across the country. There have been no elected representatives at local bodies for the last 15 years or so due to failure to conduct local level elections.
Failure by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development to depute VDC secretaries to the quake-affected districts has highlighted the government's inability to live up to its claim that it will give top priority to reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Last week, NRA launched its grant amounts distribution program from Singati in Dolakha district, and it has maintained that it will immediately expand this to the other VDCs of the district. But at least 16 of the 51 VDCs in the district have no VDC secretaries. These are the officials who will execute the grant agreements with the quake victims.
In Sindhupalchowk, another most-affected district, more than half the VDCs do not have their secretaries. Of the total 68 VDCs, 36 are without secretaries.
Likewise, there are no secretaries in 6 out of the 45 VDCs in Ramechhap, and 5 out of the 18 VDCs in Rasuwa. Similarly, 41 different VDCs in seven other affected districts, including Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Lalitpur, Okhaldhunga, Sindhuli and Makwanpur, do not have their secretaries. Kathmandu and Bhaktapur have no VDCs.
In Kavre district, however, all the 75 VDCs have secretaries. "But four of the VDCs will be without secretaries from next week as the secretaries are moving to other offices following their promotiom," Bisho Nath Dahal, president of VDC Secretaries Welfare Committee in Kavre, told Republica.
Ram Thapaliya, spokesperson at NRA, admitted that the failure of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development to depute officials to the VDC-level is going to seriously hamper the grant distribution process, which NRA is all set to begin in other VDCs also in the affected districts.
"Any delay in grant distribution will further delay the already-delayed task of reconstruction. We had asked the ministry to immediately depute officials to the vacant posts in coordination with the Ministry of General Administration. But no progress has been made in regard." he said.
The ministry's lackluster efforts to fill the vacant posts has spawned doubts that the quake victims will get the grant amounts before the monsoon.
"Filling the vacant posts of VDC secretaries in the quake-affected districts has become a tough task for the ministry as a majority of government officials are not ready to go the quake-affected districts," said a top official at the ministry. They fear that they will have to work long hours, he added.
The ministry and NRA have lately been mulling additional incentives for VDC secretaries working in the quake-affected districts.
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