630 houses constructed for disadvantaged groups

BANIYANI: Some 630 houses have been constructed to provide residential facilities to the disadvantaged families in Jhapa Rural Municipality.

The houses were built on the collaborative efforts of Jhapa Rural Municipality, Sahara-Nepal and Habitat-Nepal under the ‘Safe Housing Programme and Sustainable Community Project’.

Safe Housing Programme Chief Tika Prasad Kandel informed that 70 houses were built in 2019; 130 houses in 2020; 238 houses in 2021 and 175 houses in 2022.

“Safe and strong houses were constructed targeting the disadvantaged families”, he said, adding, “Some other houses are under construction process”.

As part of the program, houses were built focusing on the target groups, including most disadvantaged groups under the poverty line, homeless, landless, backward groups, disaster-affected, women and people living with disabilities.

Jhapa Rural Municipality chair Jay Narayan Saha said the government’s lone efforts would not be sufficient to implement the constitutionally-guaranteed right to housing. The houses are being constructed as per the tripartite agreement among Sahara Nepal, Habitat-Nepal and the rural municipality.

Construction of each house having three rooms costs Rs 185,000, shared Accounts Officer of Sahara-Nepal, Raju Giri.

Since 2007, Habitat-Nepal and Sahara-Nepal have been collaborating for the construction of houses in Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari and Udayapur as part of the project.