October 23: Altogether 810,690 households whose houses were completely destroyed by the devastating earthquakes of 2015 have been listed as beneficiaries for the reconstruction grant from the government.

Out of the total damaged houses, 307,104 houses have been reconstructed as of October 22, 2018.

Meanwhile, the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has said that it has signed grant agreements with 727,598 households for providing grant assistance.

However, the government is set to re-examine the list of beneficiaries at the local levels suspecting that around 10 percent of those listed as recipients of the housing grants are fake beneficiaries.  The government will have to foot a bill of Rs 30 billion for the 10 percent households who are not genuine quake victims.

NRA’s executive committee member Dr Chandra Bahadur Shrestha said that the reconstruction authority is working to reclaim the amount distributed to fake quake victims. According to Shrestha, the NRA has sought help from the local governments in identifying the fake quake victims.

A meeting of the NRA chaired by Prime Minister KP Oli on September 6 has urged all those who have taken housing grants without fulfilling the criteria to return the amount within three months. The NRA has warned that it will take action against the fake beneficiaries if they are reluctant to return back the amount.

Those victims whose houses were completely destroyed by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake but have houses elsewhere are not eligible for the housing grant. Similarly, those who have received grants from multiple organisations, whose houses need only repairing but have sought grant for full damage are not considered as genuine quake victims by the government.