Thursday, September 19, 2013

Chief Secy inaugurates 5 homes in Nandok

GANGTOK, 18 Sept: Marking the second anniversary of the 2011 earthquake that hit the state, Chief Secretary R Ongmu inaugurated four REDRH and one Chief Minister’s Rural Housing Mission [CMRHM] houses at Nandok under Syari constituency today.
She also gave away 13 new REDRH allotment orders to beneficiaries of Syari Constituency. Present for the inauguration were Speaker KT Gyaltsen, who is also the area MLA, DR Nepal [Secretary, RMDD], AB Karki [ADC, Development], Additional Secretary [Home], officials from RMDD, Panchayats and local people.
The Chief Secretary while interacting with the people expressed her satisfaction over the construction work of the houses under REDRH in the area which were inaugurated today. She also assured to hold a meeting with the concerned departments to redress and solve the problems faced by the local people which were raised by the panchayat during the interaction.
Since the area has been declared a horticulture belt, the CS said that she would also look into what can be done in that aspect.
Mr. Gyaltsen meanwhile, also put forth a few demands of the people of the area such as carpeting of the roads, wherein he informed that the road till Nandok School would be completed by December this year. The connection of a two kilometer road between Namok and Nandok, supply of drinking water for the area, a community hall, an agriculture/ horticulture centre for the farmers of the area and the upgradation of Pyaibuk and Nandok Secondary School to Senior Secondary were some other demands placed.
Secretary, RMDD, DR Nepal while giving a brief description of REDRH, informed the people that the department is constructing a total number of 14,040 houses under various schemes throughout the state which include 7,972 houses under REDRH, 6,000 houses under CMRHM and 68 houses under Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
Speaking on delay in construction work, he said that since material was not available readily there was a problem. He also added that lack of cooperation from the beneficiaries had also caused some delay.
Later in the day, the Chief Secretary also visited Nandok Secondary School, the under construction Gram Vikash Kendra wherein she instructed the department officials and contractor to expedite the construction of the much awaited GVK. She also visited the Shiva Temple situated at lower Nandok where she performed a puja.
The Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Rural Houses Project (REDRH) covers the reconstruction of 7,972 earthquake damaged rural houses for the victims of the devastating 18 September 2011 earthquake with a funding support of Rs 4.89 lakh per house. A total of 5,000 houses are under various stages of construction, and many houses were inaugurated earlier. Now a total of 503 new houses have been inaugurated on 18 Sept, 2013 all over the State. The philosophy of ‘Build Back Better’ has been the guiding strategy for this project. The homeowner-driven implementation model was adopted and it helped to establish a sense of ownership and identity. An efficient and transparent mechanism to ensure that beneficiary selection, stock material management, physical progress monitoring and simplification of the technical element was established. The core house design, building standards, construction material (cement and steel), technical supervision and capital was provided by the project. While the home-owner undertook the actual construction, procured local construction material (stone, sand, timber etc), arranged for mason and labour and also added their own finances. In order to make this approach effective, the provision of grant was made contingent upon meeting minimum standards for good construction quality. Also, many more houses will be completed in the months to come.

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