940 rural houses inaugurated on Earthquake anniv.

15 REDRH and 3 CMRHM houses were handed over to the respective beneficiaries at Ranka BAC on the third anniversary of 18/11 Earthquake on Thursday. The handing over ceremony was attended by Gram Vikas Adhikari, Ranka BAC, NT Bhutia, Zilla panchayat, Surya Bahadur Rai, panchayat members, AE and JEs and other officials of the Ranka BAC. 

Owning a home of our own is a dream often not easy to achieve. But for 940 rural households of Sikkim, this dream will turn into a reality as they moved into their new homes on 18 Sept 2014 in a mass inauguration function organized to mark the third anniversary of the devastating Sikkim Earthquake of 2011.
Out of the 940 rural houses inaugurated, 665 houses have been funded under the Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Rural Houses (REDRH) project and 275 under the Chief Minister’s Rural Housing Mission (CMRHM).
The philosophy of Build Back Better has been the guiding strategy for both these projects. The homeowner-driven implementation model has been adopted and it has helped to establish a sense of ownership and identity with the beneficiaries. An efficient and transparent mechanism of beneficiary selection, stock material management, physical progress monitoring and simplification of the technical elements has been established. The core house design, building standards, construction material (cement and steel), technical supervision and capital has been provided by the project. 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. Skills upgradation trainings for the masons and engineers were specially organized in partnership with IIT-Delhi.
In order to make this approach effective, the provision of grant was made contingent upon meeting minimum standards for good construction quality.

[from Rural Management & Development Department]