Consultation workshop held on rural housing earthquake reconstruction project

GANGTOK, 11 Jan [IPR]: The devastating Sikkim earthquake of 18 Sept 2011 resulted in widespread damage to public and private property. A large number of rural houses suffered various degrees of damage. Accordingly the Rural Management and Development Department prepared a DPR for the reconstruction of these full/severely damaged rural houses.
Based on this proposal, the Government of India has now sanctioned this rural housing reconstruction project. In order to finalize the design of this project and the modalities of implementation a consultation workshop was organized in RM&DD head office on 10 Jan.
This workshop was chaired by Minister RM&DD, CB Karki and attended by Minsters and MLAs, Secretary-RM&DD, District Collectors, ADC (dev)s and other senior officers. Presentation on the approach to this project was made by Special Secretary (RM&DD), Sandeep Tambe which was followed by discussion on the various issues raised.
The group discussed the various issues related to eligibility criteria of beneficiaries, beneficiary selection process, implementation models and monitoring mechanism. The Minister RM&DD in his address asked everyone to take up this project with utmost vigour and in mission mode.
This project is in fact an opportunity to bring about significant qualitative improvement in the rural housing infrastructure of the State and to reduce its future vulnerability to earthquakes. He also impressed upon them to ensure all possible transparency safeguards and quality standards to make Sikkim a model state.