Nepal agrees to speed up aid grants to quake victims

FILE - In this April 29, 2015, file photo, villagers wait in the rain as an aid relief helicopter lands at their remote mountain village of Gumda, near the epicenter of the April 25 massive earthquake in the Gorkha District of Nepal. Nepal's government agreed Thursday, June 30, 2016, to speed up aid grants to quake victims by providing the grants in two installments instead of three as was planned earlier. (AP Photo/Wally Santana, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this April 29, 2015, file photo, a house on the higher reaches of mountains, destroyed in earthquake is seen from a helicopter near Dhadingbesti, in Nepal. Nepal's government agreed Thursday, June 30, 2016, to speed up aid grants to quake victims by providing the grants in two installments to people who have lost their homes in last year's devastating earthquake, instead of three, as was planned earlier. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File) (The Associated Press)

KATHMANDU, Nepal – Nepal's government has agreed to provide aid grants in two instead of three installments to people who lost their homes in last year's devastating earthquake.

Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli made the announcement after the main opposition party protested in parliament for days demanding the government speed up aid to the victims who spent a second rainy season in temporary shelters.

Under the new agreement, the government would provide 75 percent of the total 200,000 rupees ($1,850) to each individual in the first installment and the rest in the second.

The 2015 earthquake damaged nearly 1 million houses. Only a few thousand people have so far received the first of the three grant installments to reconstruct their homes.