Nepal to issue eligibility certificates to quake-hit people

Kathmandu, April 24: Nepalese Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli said the government is distributing eligibility certificates to 319,000 earthquake affected people on Sunday to receive promised grants to rebuild their damaged houses.

The government promised to provide a grant of $1,873 to each family whose houses were damaged by the deadly 7.8 magnitude temblor on April 25, 2015, that killed over 8,000 people and injured more than 21,000, Xinhua news agency reported.

In an interview with state-run Nepal Television on Saturday night, Oli said that his government had planned to give eligibility certificates to the quake victims so that they would receive support from the government.

Nearly one year after the quake, the Nepalese government started distributing the first instalment of the grant from the second week of April.

A few hundred families have received $468 in the first instalment from the National Reconstruction Authority, the main body authorised to carry out reconstruction. NRA plans to provide the grant in three instalments.

With the government-led reconstruction process getting delayed, over 31,000 quake-affected families have rebuilt their homes on their own, according to a recent government survey.

According to Nepal's home ministry, the quake destroyed 6,04,930 houses completely and 2,88,856 houses partially.

It is estimated that the total value of disaster effects (damages and losses) caused by the earthquakes is $7 billion as per the Post Disaster Need Assessment report.

IANS