The Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana has swung into action to carry out a comprehensive survey to identify the urban homeless families, with an aim to provide a permanent shelter to them in the state.
After completing more than two and a half years tenure in the state, the BJP led State Government is now keen on implementing welfare schemes for the poor families in the remaining second half of its tenure. Providing affordable housing to the urban poor families under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship project ‘Housing for All by 2022’, will be on top of the Haryana Government’s agenda during its remaining tenure.
While a special task force was constituted under the Chief Minister last year for effective implementation of ‘Housing for All’ scheme by 2019, the State Government has now envisaged a comprehensive study to address the vulnerabilities of the urban homeless in Haryana.
Under the proposed survey, the government will identify places or clusters with urban homeless population besides identifying town-wise population of urban homeless families in the state.
For this, the State Government has decided to hire consultant services, which would be entrusted with a task of conducting a survey of homeless population besides identifying building or sites for refurbishment and construction of permanent shelters for them in different towns.
The private consultant would also identify the reasons which lead to homelessness of such identified homeless population and formulate a framework to ensure availability of permanent shelters including the basic infrastructure facilities like water supply, sanitation, safety and security. These experts will also disseminate information among the urban homeless about welfare schemes launched by the BJP led Centre and State Government.
In census 2011, the state had recorded 0.2 percent proportion (about 50,702 people) of homeless in its population of 2,53,51,462.
“The first and foremost task is to identify the urban homeless families in the state and identify locations for construction of permanent shelters for them in the state. The State Government has initiated a process to hire consultant for conducting a comprehensive study in this regard,” said a senior official of state Urban local Bodies while talking to The Pioneer.
The official said that apart from providing housing facility to houseless population, the government has formulated a plan to provide access to various entitlements namely social security pensions, PDS, ICDS, identity, financial inclusion, education to them.
The Chief Minister had already directed all the respective departments, boards and corporations involved in the implementation of the housing schemes, including Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), Haryana Housing Board, Haryana Police Housing Corporation and Rural Development Department to prepare schemes to achieve the target of providing ‘Housing for All’, he added.
Notably, the Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Venkaiah Naidu had last week held a meeting with the Chief Minister and state Ministers to review the implementation and progress of various new urban development and housing missions launched by the Central Government in Haryana.
During the meeting, the Union Minister had directed the Haryana Government to expedite the work on housing schemes in the state.
He had also asked the State Government to complete the demand survey by the end of July this year and submit the ‘Housing for All’ plan of action by August 2018.
Nearly 9 lakh people from Haryana have applied online for houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (urban).