Housing for all or another castle in the air?

Even though more than 22,200 people have filed their applications for the EWS and LIG houses to be constructed by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) under the Housing for All scheme of the government, which closed on May 23, the project appears to be yet another castle in the air if the ground realities are any indication.

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, May 29

Even though more than 22,200 people have filed their applications for the EWS and LIG houses to be constructed by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) under the Housing for All scheme of the government, which closed on May 23, the project appears to be yet another castle in the air if the ground realities are any indication.

Under the Housing for All (HFA) scheme, launched for the homeless poor, PUDA has been entrusted the task of constructing 1,450 EWS (economically weaker sections) and 350 LIG (low income group) dwelling units in the city.

The beneficiaries are to be provided land for free as subsidy, while the cost of the construction of houses would have to be paid by them. While launching the scheme earlier this month, the government had claimed that 14 acre land had been earmarked in the city for this purpose. However, going by the ground reality, the so-called housing scheme seems yet another ploy by the ruling establishment to give an impression of its being pro-poor people, asserts Congress member of Lok Sabha from Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Inquiries made by Ludhiana Tribune from senior PUDA/GLADA officials revealed that no particular chunk of land had yet been identified for this project which raises a big question mark on the claims of the government.

Further, the scheme document says that work on the project would begin in 12 to 18 months, whereas Assembly elections in the state are due in less than a year.

Bittu said the land for the project is nowhere to be seen and a gap of a year-and-a-half has been left between closure of the scheme and commencement of construction of dwelling units. “In other words, the government has left loopholes to wriggle out of an embarrassing situation if it comes to that, because once the elections are announced and code of conduct comes in force, the government can always wash its hands off the populist scheme,” he said.

It was stipulated that the EWS houses would have a carpet area of 240 square feet (super area of 340 square feet) and the LIG houses a carpet area of 390 square feet (super area of 490 square feet). The two categories of houses would be offered to the beneficiaries at Rs 4 lakh and Rs 6 lakh and bank loans would be made available to the beneficiaries for full amount. The government had also made a promise that part of the bank interest on these loans for the urban poor would be subsidised substantially.

Besides Ludhiana, the scheme has been launched in other towns including Bathinda, Jalandhar, Budhlada, Patiala, Amritsar, Mansa, Faridkot, Abohar, Nabha, Jagraon and Greater Mohali, where 8,910 EWS and 2,185 LIG houses are proposed to be constructed.