Amar Ujala Foundation received 2 Crore 13 Lakh Rupees in form of donation from more than 6000 citizens all across India. This contribution would be used to primarily develop Mid Term Shelters and then other need based structures for the flood victims of Uttarakhand.
Objective: To provide roughly 150 Mid Term Shelters (MTS) to affected villagers of 20 villages, in the first phase, and to demonstrate that an owner’s ownership driven rehabilitation strategy of building houses has multi-dimensional benefits—both for the society and the affected family.
Administrative and Financial Strategy:
- All payments to made through account payee cheques, barring situational exceptions
- The complete strategy of funds disbursal to be declared beforehand so that each level of stakeholder is well informed and aware of the procedures involved in funds disbursal
- Each stakeholder to be informed of its responsibilities and authorities, wherever applicable
- The complete strategy of action would be declared well in advance to all stakeholders
Action Plan
- Make a model Mid Term Shelter at HESCO, Dehradun under the technical guidance of NCPDP and TRAN. The process to begin on September 15, 2013. The process to complete by September 20.
- Arrange a simultaneous hands on training at HESCO of Masons and Carpenters drawn from select villages (selection to be done by local NGOs of HESCO network) who would then become Master Trainers and help affected families to build their MTS
- Start building 5 more model MTS at 5 different locations immediately after rains recede, with the help of these master trainer masons/carpenters so that locale specific MTS are built in the affected villages and affected people can exactly know what is going to be built and how they would be involved in the process
- Finalize beneficiaries and disburse the first installment of account payee cheques through local NGOs to individual beneficiary (prospective MTS owner) who would start the process of building MTS on his/her own land
- Disburse second and third set of performance linked cheques to individual beneficiary through local NGOs who would ensure that the cheque is given only when the stipulated conditions are met for each stage
- Give incentives to those beneficiary family who completes the MTS in stipulated time
- Review the whole process and decide further action
Responsibilities Brief
- Amar Ujala Foundation
- HESCO
- NCPDP/TARN
- Local NGO
- Amar Ujala Dehradun
- AU Local correspondents
- House owner
Amar Ujala Foundation
- Resource Mobilization
- Cementing collaboration with Expert organizations like NCPDP, DA, TRAN and UNDP etc
- Suggesting Procurement modalities to HESCO
- Timely Fund Disbursal to HESCO for Procurement of building material
- Fund disbursal to House owner on various stages of construction through Local NGO
- Providing funds for Training of Masons at HESCO and respective Model Sites (select beneficiary villages)
- Provide funds to Local NGOs through HESCO for village selection, village survey, community mobilization, physical monitoring of construction process, disbursal of cheques to House Owners, maintaining process documents, organizing masons for training etc
- Provide funds for building first Model MTS at HESCO headquarters
HESCO
- Selection of Local NGOs who would first select villages in consultation with AU reporters and then select prospective beneficiaries and coordinate the whole process of MTS building with total participation of the owner family
- Facilitate building the first MTS at its headquarters
- Facilitate residential training of around 25 masons form selected villages; training cost to be provided by Amar Ujala Foundation
- Help local NGOs in finalizing the site in their respective areas where demonstrative MTS would be built
- Select and finalize the vendor in consultation with Amar Ujala Foundation who would supply the GI sheets for 150 MTS to be built in 20 villages
- Issue the purchase order for GI sheets and provide the space for its initial storage
- Arrange for the transportation of GI sheets to various destinations; the destinations to be decided in consultation with Amar Ujala Foundation, Dehradun
- Create a core team that would monitor the process technically and physically
- Coordinate on regular basis with partnering local NGOs about developments taking place during the whole process of MTS building
- Disburse the cheques to be given to local NGOs in compensation of the expenses incurred by them in this discharging their responsibilities
- Randomly inspect the process of building MTS and funds disbursal to house owner by the local NGO
- Ensure that the local NGO is keeping separate file of each beneficiary, with proper documents and photos and that these NGOs are simultaneously providing the same documents/photos to HESCO headquarters
- Maintain and share the records of each beneficiary householder with Amar Ujala Foundation simultaneously
- Ensure that the cheques of various stages of construction of MTS reach respective NGO well in time and that the procedure of disbursal is clearly understood by these NGOs
NCPDP/TARN
- Provide an intense survey based design of MTS to AUF for construction of MTS with locally available raw material and also suggest locale specific modifications as per the requirements of different geo-cultural location affected by flash floods
- Provide training to local masons, first at HESCO headquarters and then, if required, at respective sites finalized by AUF-HESCO in consultation with local NGOs
- Be available for technical trouble shooting in building MTS at various locations
- Present at various forum, if and when required, the technical and social superiority of the MTS model that involves complete participation and ownership of the house owner
- Help design the process document of this wholesome and integrated effort
- Take technical help of relevant agencies if and when required
LOCAL NGOs
- Select villages where MTS would be built in consultation with HESCO, AU reporters
- Cross check with local authorities that the selected villages have not already been selected by any other governmental or non-governmental agency got building MTS
- Select prospective beneficiaries in consultation with AU local reporter and verify that the person has not already received house compensation from state govt. or any other agency.
- Send the list of beneficiaries, village wise, to HESCO headquarters immediately after finalization of the list
- Organize an awareness campaign in selected villages about the programme, its procedures and its participatory approach
- Help local AU reporter to verify that the listed beneficiary has not received compensations for re-building house (2 or 1 lakh rupees)
- Bring local masons for first round of training at HESCO scheduled from September 15, 2013
- Select well in advance those interested local masons who would take training at village sites in the second stage
- Facilitate second stage training at selected sites where locale specific model MTS would be built
- Hold 2-3 meeting with selected beneficiaries before the second stage MTS is completely built (at their own village or in some nearby location) to apprise them of the process involved in the MTS building programme, their responsibilities and their rights—their right to receive the other installments of cheques at time if they adhere to the timeline prescribed by NCPDP-AUF-HESCO
- Ensure that the selected beneficiary has the piece of land in his/her own name where the MTS would be built. Get the paper validated by respective village authority.
- Hand over first installment of funds to respective beneficiary by strictly adhering to the procedure prescribed by AUF-HESCO and updating HESCO with the documentary evidence
- Ensure that the cheques to be distributed by them to respective beneficiaries are correctly named and have reached them well in time and also ensure that the cheque of each stage is not given to any beneficiary before time
- Ensure to receive in writing on the prescribed format the disbursal of cheque at each stage and take a photograph that informs that the owner has received the cheque and also depicts the stage of construction at which the cheque was to be given
- Inform the local AU reporter about the cheque disbursal activity so that he/she could come to witness and report back to AU Dehradun office and also send his/her report for the newspaper
Amar Ujala Foundation, Dehradun Chapter
- Supervise the whole process of providing MTS to needy people of selected villages
- Coordinate with state government and ensure trouble shooting if and when required
- Motivate local reporters to closely coordinate with local NGOs involved in MTS building process
- Ensure to cross check through local and headquarter reporters that the villagers initially selected do not fall in the list of beneficiaries of other agencies, whether govt. or non-govt.
- Help HESCO in finalizing the vendor supplying the GI sheets and other material that would be purchased in bulk for these MTS
AU' Local Correspondent
- Help local NGO in village selection by cross checking with local authorities so that no delicacy of efforts happens.
- Help local NGO in selecting genuine beneficiary.
- Help cross check if the selected beneficiary has land in his/her name where MTS will be built.
- Create as much reports/interviews from the whole process as possible reasonably.
- Monitor the cheque disbursal process at selected villages.
- Help local NGO in smooth sailing of the whole process.
- Coordinate with the local and state authorities to ensure that selected beneficiary has smooth and hassle free access to stones and timber.
- Ensure that local NGO regularly sends pictoral report to HESCO headquarters.
Beneficiary
- Arrange for the construction site
- Organize the procurement of local materials, especially stone through local persons, and get it delivered at the site
- Ensure safe guarding of non-local materials delivered at the road-head
- Ensure construction as per guidelines provided without violation, including when making minor modifications in design
- Safely store the procured and supplied materials
- Arrange for man power as needed
- Get the construction executed within stipulated budget and time limit
Process of advance payment to the beneficiaries
NCPDP has proposed the following strategy to be adopted for the process of payment. This would be finalized after the first MTS sample is built at HESCO headquarters where simultaneous training of masons would also take place.
Once the cost of the structure is finalized including the material and labor cost, the payment (lump-sum pre-determined amount) can be arranged in the following stages
- The first installment must be released at the time of collecting and carting of local material (stone) and carting of outside materials to the site. This will vary from village to village depending upon the distance of the location of site from the road-head.
- Once all the material has reached the site, the second installment for the labor cost for masons and unskilled labor must be released. This is a fixed amount at all locations.
- Once the stone walls are constructed up to the required height, the third installment must be released for the labor cost of carpenters and the unskilled labor required with him. This is a fixed amount at all locations.
With the full payment already released before the installation of roof, it would be best to have an incentive of some form to make sure the beneficiary finishes his/her shelter on time.
