Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and NREP Minister Neelkanth Singh Munda on Saturday said that the Government is working on construction of 1.75 lakh affordable homes for homeless under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna by 2019. He added that the execution of the plan to eradicate homelessness in the State by 2022 was in full swing.
In a workshop held at SKIPA auditorium, Munda 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’.
Munda said, “Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna 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 reiterated that Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna was extremely important for the State Government and it will try to achieve target within the given time period.
The Principal Secretary of Rural Development Department NN Sinha said that the Government has targeted to provide every homeless at least a two-room house by 2022. “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,” Sinha added.
The workshop was also attended by architects, masons working in rural area, BDOs, representative of NGOs and other officials. 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.
Describing the purposes of the workshop, Deputy Secretary of Rural Development Department Neelam lata said that it was organised to educate stakeholders and to inform them about how and what had been done so far in this regard.
“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.