SINDHULI, April 25: Local representatives in Sindhuli have blamed the hectic process and negligence from technical staff for the delay in the reconstruction of houses damaged by the ravaging earthquake of 2015.
Even after four years since the major disaster, not even half of the quake-damaged houses have been reconstructed in Sindhuli. As engineers do not stay in places deployed by the government, reconstruction has failed to pick up pace, lament the locals.
Elected representatives themselves admit that lack of coordination between them and the engineers is another reason behind the delay.
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The progress of private home reconstruction is very disappointing especially in Hariharpurgadhi Rural Municipality and Dudhauli Municipality. There are altogether 5,202 beneficiaries in Dudhauli. However, only 916 have accepted the third tranche of grant so far.
So far, only 18% of the reconstruction work has been completed here. Similarly, in Hariharpurgadhi only 16% houses have been reconstructed in four years, according to Devnarayan Prasad Yadav, acting chief of the National Reconstruction Authority's District Project Implementation Unit. There are 2,625 beneficiaries in Hariharpurgadhi of which only 413 have received the third and last tranche of the reconstruction grant.
"Engineers and technicians deployed in our local unit do not stay in the field," said Karsang Tamang, chairperson of Hariharpurgdhi, adding, "It is not possible for them to inspect the houses in rural areas by staying in the district headquarters." According to him, there are several other reasons behind the delay but the negligence of drivers is one of the major reasons.
The situation is no different in Dudhauli. Dipendra Paudel, chief administrative officer of the municipality, also blamed the negligence of the technicians behind the snail-paced reconstruction. There are two municipalities and seven rural municipalities in Sindhuli but reconstruction work has gained momentum only in Sunkoshi and Golanjor rural municipalities.
As per the details provided by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), the earthquake in Sindhuli damaged 38,042 houses. Out of which 24,437 have received the second tranche. But only 14,946 of them have accepted the third tranche so far. So, the overall development of the district is 39%.
