The state government of Jharkhand will construct around 1.75 lakh affordable housing units under PM Awas Yojana. On Saturday, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and NREP Minister, Neelkanth Singh Munda, said that the government is working on the plan dedicated for the construction of 1.75 lakh affordable homes under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by 2019. He added that the execution of the plan to eradicate homelessness in the State by 2022 was in full swing.
During the workshop at SKIPA auditorium, the minister said that the State was aiming at providing affordable houses to homeless just according to their wish in terms of design and affordability with keeping local geo-topographical conditions in mind. The event was organised by the Rural Development Department on ‘Development of Appropriate and Affordable Rural Housing Design under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna–Gramin for Jharkhand’.
Further he also quoted that “Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has kicked off. We need to leave no stone unturned to give it a solid foundation. The Government strongly believes that development of rural area is not possible if the issue of basic needs like housing, livelihood, education and financial capabilities are kept unaddressed.”
He also emphasized on the important of PM Awas Yojana and said that the scheme is extremely important for the State Government and the target under the scheme will be achieved within the given period.
According to the statement of NN Sinha who is the Principal Secretary of Rural Development Department, the Government has targeted to provide every homeless at least a two-room house by 2022. Meanwhile he also added that the size of the plan for this year is 2.5 times bigger. The entire plan is estimated to cost `1,700-1,800 crores. We are trying to develop houses as local as to be close to the emotions of dwellers.
Besides Neelkanth Singh Munda and NN Sinha, architects, masons working in rural area, BDOs, representative of NGOs and other officials were also attended the workshop.
The entire programme of providing affordable housing to homeless is being assisted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at a number of fronts including finalising the design based on a number of local geo-topographical conditions.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Secretary of Rural Development Department Neelam Lata distributed the purposes of the workshop and said that it was organized to educate stakeholders and to inform them about how and what had been done so far in this regard.
And further he quoted that we are giving villagers a number of designs for their proposed homes, in which they pick one design of their choice. We train local artisans and masons to construct homes based on those designs. No agency or NGO will have any say in development of the house and it will totally depend on the wish of the beneficiary without any compromise with the quality of construction.
She said that the pilot project done in a block in Patratu was a huge success, where local masons were trained to construct 10 houses on the design chosen by beneficiaries. It will now be replicated in entire State.
Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/