The first meeting of the directive committee held at the NRA's office in Singha Durbar on Monday decided to approve the budget of Rs 29, 67, 88,000 for the authority to set up its regional offices in the earthquake-affected districts and carry out other necessary administrative tasks before it starts the real task of reconstruction and rehabilitation at ground level.
It was only five days ago that the government had given full shape to the directive committee after the executive committee of the authority headed by Sushil Gyewali could not launch any plans on reconstruction and rehabilitation without the approval from the directive committee.
The meeting of the directive committee also endorsed the authority's organizational structures to be established in the regional level to oversee the task of reconstruction and rehabilitation to be carried out in 31 districts affected by the April 25 earthquake and its aftershocks.
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"The committee has decided to set up six regional offices of the authority to oversee the task of reconstruction and rehabilitation for the 14 most-affected districts at Dolakha, Kavre, Nuwakot, Gorkha, Kathmandu and Lalitpur and a regional office for other remaining 17 least-affected districts," said Madhu Sudan Adhikari, acting secretary of the authority.
The committee decided to set up seven regional offices based on the recommendations of a taskforce formed by CEO Gyewali right after his appointment to study what kind of organizational set up will be best for the authority to execute its plans and polices effectively at the local level. The taskforce also had suggested that the task of reconstruction and rehabilitation need to be carried out in 31 districts including the 14 most-affected ones.
Adhikari said that that the next meeting of the directive committee will endorse the authority's policies and programs.
Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel, Home Minister Shakti Bahadur Basent, opposition party Nepali Congress Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel, Chief Secretary Som Lal Subedi and CEO Gyewali were present in the meeting of the directive committee.
The directive committee also endorsed the authority's proposal of launching a national reconstruction mega-campaign from January 16 till April 25. The campaign will be launched after President Bidya Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will kick off two different inaugural functions on January 16. President Bhandari will lay the foundation stone at Ranipokhari while Prime Minister Oli at Bungamati village as a symbolic initiative to mark the beginning of the reconstruction task.
On Sunday, CEO Gyewali, speaking at a house meeting, said that the mega-campaign was being launched to impart momentum to all the preparatory works necessary for launching the real task of reconstruction and also for generating optimism among the general public and the donor community that the work will get done as soon as possible. While he said so, he also said that the real task of reconstruction and rehabilitation can only begin after mid-April as much preparatory works need to be finalized beforehand.
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