Parliamentarians urge Reconstruction Authority to go ahead in full swing

Kathmandu / October 3: The lack of effective delivery of relief assistance to survivors of April 25 Gorkha earthquake has caused frustration among them, complained parliamentarians.

Taking part in an interaction progroramme organised by the National Campaign for Disaster Mitigation in Lalitpur Saturday, parliamentarians stressed the National Reconstruction Authority constituted to implement the post-quake reconstruction efforts to carry out the task in full swing.

Though the earthquake, the major one since the 1934 great earthquake, left a massive loss of life and property, the delay in executing rebuild works has caused frustrations among the survivors. They accused the state of forgetting the possibility that a big earthquake may again strike the country that lies on a high seismic fault zone.

Construction of earthquake-resistant structures, public awareness on the mitigation of disaster risks and implementation of soil utility policy are the major needs of ahead, they said.

They further called on the government and political parties to give priority to competence not political back force while appointing necessary human resources in the Authority.

Prem Bahadur Singh, Ram Narayan Bidari, Guru Prasad Burlakoti, Ananta Poudel and Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel expressed their reservations to a delay in carrying out post-quake reconstruction works, citing various reasons.

Seeking an effective enforcement of the act related to disaster management and dissemination of fact-based information at time of disaster, they pledged their full support to the government towards that end. The government formed the authority but it went defunct as the political parties did not endorse the bill from the parliament. The government has also appointed vice chairperson of the National Planning Commission Dr. Govinda Pokharel as its Chief Executive. The government hold donor’s conference in a bid to seek more foreign assistance for expediting the reconstruction work following the earthquake but it failed to get priority as political parties are busy in other issues. (Inputs from RSS)