KATHMANDU, June 14: Following the lack of proper coordination between National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) and four central level project implementation units (CLPIUs), the NRA has asked the government to put those units under its authority.
Since the NRA has been facing criticism over snail-paced reconstruction works across the earthquake-affected districts, NRA Chief Executive Officer Govinda Raj Pokharel has proposed bringing the units under his watch with a view to expedite the reconstruction task smoothly.
The NRA has already submitted a proposal to the cabinet seeking power to handle those units after the decision was made by the NRA executive committee about a week ago. “We are waiting for the cabinet decision regarding our proposal submitted about a week ago. If it gets approval from the meeting, it will provide us the rights to handle the units on our own,” said Yam Lal Bhoosal, spokesperson of NRA.
The CLPIUs were established under the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation; the Ministry of Urban Development; and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development with a mission to expedite the reconstruction tasks under the ministries' jurisdiction.
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“Working with the CLPIUs in current situation has brought obstacles in our cooperation. So, this proposal may ease the difficulties that has been delaying our efforts since long time,” Bhoosal said.
According to him, the offices of CLPIUs will be located at the same places but will be guided by the NRA directly. Currently, these units are working as per the guiding policies, directives and resources of the NRA as well as the line ministries.
All these four CLPIUs have 14 separate branches in earthquake-affected districts. “If the cabinet approves our proposal, all the branches will be also under our authority,” Bhoosal added.
Officials at NRA informed that this new provision will provide the power to deploy and transfer the staffers also.
“The current situation has shown that we are neither under the ministry nor NRA,” Ima Narayan Shrestha, project director of CLPIU under the Ministry of Education, said. “NRA gives us order to implement the task and our ministry evaluates our work.”
He said that they too have been demanding to be brought under a single body and the same body should evaluate their performance. He also said that it will ease their work and help in coordination to expedite the tasks.
The CLPIUs has been accelerating the school reconstruction projects, verification of quake victim, reconstruction of heritage/trekking routes, deploying the technical manpower to assist the victim to rebuild their houses and among other. They have also responsibility to engage in the reconstruction activities with a continuous and aggressive coordination, communication and collaboration with other government bodies, NGOs, development agencies and among other.
