Multiple ownership puts quake survivors’ house construction in limbo

Sanchita Ghimire
LALITPUR, July 30: The construction of private houses of beneficiaries – legally partitioned yet having joint ownership of land – has not gained any momentum.

House construction of the newly-registered beneficiary households having multiple ownership of land is not making any progress in lack of separate land space for the same, according to the District Project Implementation Unit of Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project.

Information Technology specialist at the Unit, Rakesh Maharjan shared that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has clearly defined households having separate kitchen and dining following partition of family properties before the 2015 earthquake as beneficiary household.

“Though the beneficiaries having multiple ownership of land and house had received the first tranche of grant, they could not access the second installment for not being able to initiate the construction”.

Owing to construction of the house in limited space and compulsion to divide the house for family members, there is the practice of sharing house space among brothers’ families in city area.

It has also delayed the construction of houses for earthquake beneficiaries in urban setting, he added.

Immediately after the 2015 earthquake, many families had rushed to divide the family properties to access the grants announced for the survivors.
The Unit had signed MoU with those having partition before the earthquake recognizing them separate beneficiaries.

“The MoU is signed with beneficiary households based on the recommendation of the local government and our own verification process”, he noted.

If the progress of private housing construction is something to go by, delay is more visible in urban area compared to rural in accessing second and third tranche of grants.

Surprisingly, only 290 out of 5,169 beneficiary households in Lalitpur Metropolitan City have so far received the third.

Number of beneficiary households in the district had surged to 27,718 inclusive of households added after survivors complaints about the same were redressed. However, MoU for grants was signed with 23,835 beneficiaries.

Among the identified beneficiaries, MoU for first installment was signed with 98 percent, for second with 28 percent and with 14 percent for third installment, it is learnt. RSS