A cabinet meeting held at Singha Durbar on Wednesday endorsed the guidelines tabled by the NRA with some amendments, informed Minister for Information Sher Dhan Rai, who is also the spokesman of the government.
NRA had last week decided to start distributing grant assistance amounts of Rs 200,000 each from March 3. But after the cabinet meeting on Monday did not endorse the guidelines citing it needed further review, NRA has postponed the grant assistance distribution for a week.
"Another reason for the postponement was the Nepali Congress general convention because representatives of Nepali Congress cannot attend the inauguration of the grants distribution. But by the time of the convention concludes, we will complete all the preparations" said Adhikari.
Earlier, NRA had planned to start the grant assistance distribution from Singati VDC of Dolakha district from Thursday and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was likely to inaugurate the grant distribution.
Following Wednesday's cabinet decision, the NRA has decided to deploy its team to Dolakha district to make all the preparatory administrative tasks required for starting the grant distribution.
"A five-member team led by Dhurba Prasad Sharma and Chandra Bahadur Shrestha will visit Dolakha on Thursday to carry out all the preparatory work," said acting secretary of NRA Madhusudan Adhikari.
He also said that teams from other concerned ministries like the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development and Ministry of Urban Development will also visit the district alongside NRA's team to complete the preparatory work for grants distribution.
"Many locals still think that the government will rebuild their homes which is not true. So, our team will also organize various awareness campaigns to clear the misconception and to inform that the government will provide only technical and financial assistance and the victims will have to construct their houses themselves," said Adhikari.
He also said that the team will also inform the victims about the grant receiving process and the documents needed.
Of the Rs 200,000 grant amount, Rs 50,000 will be provided to the victims in the first installment, Rs 80,000 in the second and Rs 70,000 in the last installment, according to NRA.
Officials at NRA said that the grant assistance will be distributed to 6,000 families of Dolakha district in the first phase in coordination with the Ministry for Federal Affairs and Local Development.
Apart from the grant assistance, NRA will also start providing subsidized loans to the victims in Dolakha district. The victims will be provided Rs 2,500,000 as subsidized loans to victims in urban areas and Rs 1,500,000 to those in the rural areas.
Meanwhile, the cabinet meeting has appointed Shivaraj Shrestha and Chintamani Shiwakoti as the deputy governors of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). Likewise, the meeting also appointed consul generals for Hong Kong, Lhasa and Kolkata. Joint secretary Ek Narayan Aryal has been appointed for Kolkata, Govinda Karki for Lhasa and Kamal Bhattarai for Hong Kong.
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