Kathmandu, July 27: The Appellate Committee at the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has begun the online hearing of the grievances filed by the earthquake-affected people.
The Committee began online hearing from today as the complainants cannot travel to Kathmandu due to the unavailability of long-distance transportation that has been halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The full bench of the three-member Appellate Committee interacted with 50 complainants from Nuwakot district. The NRA’s District Level Project Implementation Unit (Grant Management and Local Infrastructure) facilitated the hearing.
“We decided to hold online hearing to facilitate the earthquake-affected people, as do not have to travel to the capital from far-flung areas,” said Bhishma Kadariya, member of the Committee. He also informed that the Committee will continue to hold online hearing in the coming days facilitate the earthquake-affected people.
The Committee is located at the NRA’s office premises at Singha Durbar.
Though the Committee had been hearing the cases as per the registration number, it has now decided to hold hearing from one district in a day. The officials at the respective DLPIU-GMaLI offices in the districts will facilitate the online hearing process.
There were 7,036 cases filed at the Committee till July 15 this year, out of which the process of investigation has been completed in 6,007 cases.
The Committee has given the final verdict on 2,086 cases, in which it sanctioned the NRA’s decision on 1,367 cases and gave reverse verdict on 161 cases which now will be included in the government’s beneficiary list. Out of 161 cases, 122 are related to reconstruction and 39 are related to retrofitting.
Besides, 61 cases have been kept on hold while 497 cases have been dismissed.
A majority of cases filed at the Appellate Committee include complaints like the NRA not providing the government grant to those who should get and instead providing those who should not get. Another major issue is decisions on who should receive the grant for reconstruction and retrofitting.
As per the 2072 Act on reconstruction of earthquake-affected infrastructures, the three member Appellate Committee has been established to listen to the complaints filed against the decisions made by the NRA.
