By Narendra Dhakal
Gorkha, Nov. 10: Only 88 per cent of the houses have been rebuilt in Gorkha district in the last five and a half years since the devastated earthquake hit the country.
According to the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), 58,969 earthquake victims have so far rebuilt their houses in the district, which was also epicenter of the massive earthquake. They also received the third tranche of the government grant.
Ambika Poudel of the NRA District Project Implementation Unit informed that of the total 72,593 beneficiaries in the district, 69,692 people have received the first tranche and 62,464 the second tranche of the grant. Only 4,607 of 5,686 beneficiaries of retrofitting grant received the first tranche.
Of the total beneficiaries, there is a difference of 7,268 between the people taking the first tranche and the second one. Statistics show that 3,455 of those who received the second tranche did not receive the third one.
Some people who are in financial and technical problems may not be able to rebuild their houses, but most people have built their houses in the district, said Ram Sharan Achaya, chief of the District Project Implementation Unit. Some of them left the work in the middle after receiving the grant, he said.
The government has repeatedly set the reconstruction deadlines. The last extended deadline expires in mid-April next year. Acharya claimed that all the works related to the reconstruction of the district would be completed within that time.
Of 11 local levels of the district, 91 per cent houses have been rebuilt in Arughat Gaunpalika, 94 per cent in Ajirkot Gaunpalika, 83 per cent in Bhimsen Thapa Gaunpalika and 76 per cent in Tsum Numbri Gaunpalika. Similarly, 89 per cent of individual houses have been rebuilt in Dharche Gaunplika, 77 per cent in Gandaki Gaunpalika, 88 per cent in Shahid Lakhan Gaunpalika, 93 per cent in Siranchowk Gaunpalika and 95 per cent in Sulikot Gaunpalika.
Of the two municipalities, 90 per cent of the individual houses in Gorkha and 86 per cent in Palungtar have been rebuilt.
Among the local levels, 95 per cent houses were rebuilt in Sulikot, where lies Barpak, the epicenter of the quake.
Tsum Numbri Gaunpalika is in the bottom in terms of reconstruction of private houses as only 76 per cent houses are rebuilt here.