JK could provide houses to just 8 of 9,175 homeless families

Srinagar, Feb 14: State has failed to provide ‘housing for all’ in Kashmir, with hardly eight of the targeted 9,175 families benefited by the Government of India’s (GoI) scheme launched three years back.
The information was shared by the Jammu and Kashmir government in response to a question in the ongoing Assembly session in Jammu.
The ‘Housing for all’ scheme, implemented under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Urban, was launched in June 2015, and so far, around Rs 2,462.8 lakh has been released.
“The scheme aims to provide clean & hygienic shelters to the shelter-less people,” reads the government’s written reply.
“However, as of January 2018, hardly eight shelter-less families were provided with the house—three in Budgam, four in Baramulla and one in Kupwara, and none in districts like Anantnag, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian and Srinagar.”
Kupwara, where only a single house is completed, Rs 888.5 lakh were released to achieve the target of 3,527 houses, the highest among all districts.
Anantnag, where no family has been benefited by the scheme, Rs 558.8 lakh were released and the set target is 3,503 houses, the second highest.
In Baramulla, the state had the target of completing 2,814 houses and Rs 265.8 lakh were released for the purpose.
However, only four houses were completed.
In Budgam, only three families benefited from the scheme out of the target of 2,708 houses, and the released amount was Rs 212.4 lakh.
A target of completing 54 houses was set by the state in Srinagar and Rs 16 lakh were released by the GoI, the least among all.
In Pulwama, Kulgam, Bandipora, Ganderbal, and Shopian districts, where none of the houses have been completed, the government had set the target of providing 7,152 houses and an amount of Rs 521.5 lakh was released to meet the target.
The written reply also reveals that in Kashmir, as per the Socio-Economic Caste Census-2011, there are a total of “456 Houseless Households” and “4,23,495 Kuccha Households (as per wall material)”.
Looking at the speed at which the scheme is being implemented, ‘Houses for all by the year 2022’ looks like a distant dream.