Great opportunity for poor people in rural areas to construct own house

 

Amir Tantray

Doda, June 11: There is a great opportunity for poor people living in rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir to have their own house as government has set a target of constructing 199550 houses in rural area of this union territory.

 

For this purpose government will be giving Rs 1.3 lakh to each one under Prime Minister Awaas Yojna plus (PMAY+) scheme.

 

Out of the 199550 houses, Doda district, one of the most backward areas of Jammu and Kashmir with having mostly rural population, has got the share of 15186 houses to be constructed.

 

The week-long registration camp was organised for the people in all block headquarters where people, who are either houseless or have a two-room hutment made of mud and the monthly income doesn’t exceed beyond Rs 10000 were invited to take the benefit of this scheme and Rural Development Department (RDD) has been tasked to complete the process by end of this month. For registration purpose people need to bring Aadhar card, bank credentials-passbook, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) card, a copy of ration card, revenue extract of land and self attested declaration.

 

This is the herculean task for RDD officers and officials to complete the process within the stipulated time and ensure transparency so that deserving people get a house so that they can have a roof to spend life.

 

Giving details, Assistant Commissioner Doda Phulail Singh, said, “People covered in previous PMAY scheme are not eligible for this scheme. As per the Statistical Area Classification (SAC) done during 2011 census, most of the people falling below the poverty line were given houses and this time non-SAC people, the survey of which was done in 2018, will be covered in PMAY+ scheme.”

 

The ACD said that as per the survey it has been found that some of the people who have either constructed houses on their own or have been employed by the government won’t be eligible for houses under PMAY+ scheme. “But people have also alleged that their names have been axed from the survey without proper verification and they deserve to be in the list. All these things will be checked and we will try to include only deserving people,” he added.

 

Most of the people living in far off villages on hills in this part of the world are hand to mouth and for earning livelihood they migrate outside J&K where they earn and send money to other back home. Mostly labourers from Doda are working in neighbouring Ladakh union territory and Himachal Pradesh and whatever they earn; it is not enough for them to construct houses.

 

They are looking for transparency in distribution of houses under new scheme so that deserving people are not left behind and undeserving are not preferred over them.

 

Once the registration process is completed RDD officials will have to Geotag the registered one and after that geotagged houses will be sanctioned. After that final sanction will be given by verifying the accounts of people who will be selected.

 

The total amount for construction of a house is Rs 1.30 lakh which will be given to the people in four instalments. Besides that every individual who is selected PMAY+ scheme will be given 95 days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for constructing the house @ Rs 244 per day. Moreover, Rs 12000 will be given for construction of a toilet as well.