MmLieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu today directed theHousing & Urban Development Department (H&UDD) for framing of acomprehensive housing policy to address the increasing housing demand of thepeople of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, besides ensuring a plannedurban development. He further directed the officers to roll out a mechanism toframe the “In-situ” Slum Redevelopment policy aiming to provide housing toeligible slum dwellers.

The Lt. Governor passed these directions while reviewing theimplementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) across J&K in a meetinghere at the Civil Secretariat.

During the meeting, the Lt. Governor took a comprehensivereview on the progress made under PMAY (Urban and Grameen) and sought adistrict wise performance report.

On Beneficiary Led Individual House Construction orEnhancement (BLC), the Lt. Governor sought a proposal for enhancing the currentassistance provided by the Government of Union Territory of J&K to theEconomical Weaker Section (EWS) under PMAY.

It was informed that BLC (PMAY-U), the UT Government isproviding an assistance of Rs 16,666 to EWS while the share of the CentralGovernment is Rs 1.50 lakhs.

Taking serious note of extremely low percentage ofexpenditure occurred under PMAY (U) in districts like Baramulla, Anantnag andUdhampur, the Lt. Governor directed the department to call an explanation ofthe nodal supervisors of H&UDD and sought the reason behind the same.

The Lt. Governor exhorted the officers to ensure watersupply to every household and toilets constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM) in convergence with Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).

Emphasizing on restructuring of Engineering departments, ingeneral and H&UDD in particular, the Lt. Governor asked the officers tosubmit a proposal regarding postings in Engineering wing of Urban-Local bodiesat the district level.

The meeting was informed that under four verticals of PMAY(U) that are Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC), Affordable Housing inPartnership (AHP), “In-situ” Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) and Credit Link SubsidyScheme (CLSS) , a total of 55155 houses were sanctioned against the target of79331. Under BLC, 3311 houses have been completed while 13100 beneficiarieswere identified under AHP.

Under PMAY-Grameen, Phase-I, 17743 houses were completedagainst the target of 37494 with Rs 395.87 cr worth of funds utilized out ofreceived Rs 396.75.In Phase-II, 19 houses have been completed so far out of thenew target of 52500 taking the cumulative progress to 17762 completed housesagainst the targeted 89994.

Later, the Lt. Governor reviewed the working of J&KHousing Board and sought a detailed report on the available assets, revenuegeneration, expenditures and infrastructural development made by the Board.

The Lt. Governor asked the Board to assess the revenuegeneration and make concerted efforts to generate more income.

A detailed briefing was given on Housing colonies developedby the Housing Board. The meeting was informed that a total of 07 Governmentcolonies are under Administrative Control of J&K Housing Board. On HousingColonies developed by J&K Housing Board, it was informed that there are2862 plots in Kashmir Division and 6099 in Jammu Division taking the total to8961. Besides, 1240 flats were developed by the Board under Housing facilitiesfor Darbar Move Employees.

 Meanwhile, the issueof MGNREGA liability was also put up in the meeting, on which; Secretary RDDinformed the chair that the current liability under MGNREGA is about Rs 400 crwhich is mainly due to the exceeding of material component by the Panchayatsbeyond the limit admissible under norms.

Sh. BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Sh. Arun Kumar Mehta,Financial Commissioner, Finance; Sh. Bipul Pathak, Principal Secretary to theLieutenant Governor; Sh. Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary, Housing and UrbanDevelopment Department; Sh. Sanjeev Verma, Divisional Commissioner Jammu; Ms.Sheetal Nanda, Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj; Sh. KumarRajeev Ranjan, Vice Chairman, Jammu Development Authority and other officersattended the meeting.