14 lawmakers representing quake-hit districts to be nominated in Reconstruction Consultative Council

Kathmandu / Oct 4: A meeting of the Consultative Council of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) today decided to nominate 14 lawmakers representing the 14 districts most affected by the last year’s earthquake in the Council. The nominations will be made on the basis of the principle of inclusion.

A meeting of the Council that took place at the Prime Minister’s official residence, Baluwatar handed the responsibility of constituting the Development Assistance Coordination and Facilitation Committee to its Chair and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The Committee shall have maximum 11 members.

Addressing the meeting, the Prime Minister expressed his satisfactions over the progress on the distribution of the first installment of house rebuilding grants to the disaster survivors under its 45-day campaign, directing the bodies concerned to implement the decisions made by the Authority’s Steering Committee before the next meeting of the Council.

Stating that the post-quake reconstruction drive was his topmost priority, the Prime Minister said he realised that support and cooperation from all walks of life was essential to make the rebuilding drive successful. The decision to give a legal status to the Council was to run the campaign effectively, as he stated at the meeting.

He went on saying that he was regularly monitoring the implementation status of the Council decisions, expressing his hope that such meeting would help face challenges seen in the execution of reconstruction works.

Also speaking on the occasion, former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba suggested the government for accelerating the post-quake rebuilding campaign.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam suggested the formation of a mechanism to fast-track the reconstruction works, reasoning that it would be difficult to work on a war-footing through a general administrative channel.

Likewise, Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat sought an effective role from all the bodies concerned in accelerating the reconstruction works as the NRA alone was no supposed to do so alone.

At the meeting, the NRA Chief Executive Officer Sushil Gyawali presented the progress report regarding the reconstruction works and discussed the challenges the NRA has witnessed in the due course and ways to resolve them.

He also said about Rs 938 billion would be needed for the reconstructions as per the five-year plan of the reconstruction and an agreement has been reached so far with various donor agencies and organisations to provide Rs 272 billion assistance for the reconstruction purposes. RSS