Destitute family living in a tin shed await PM’s housing scheme for years despite PRI approval, recommendations
Abdul Basit
Bandipora, Jan 02: The official apathy and misplaced priorities of the district administration has forced a destitute family to live in a tin shed making them vulnerable amid sub-zero temperature as authorities have failed to provide them shelter under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) despite his name appearing in the list recommended by the local Panchayat.
Family of Bilal Ahmad and Shaheena including their 3 minor kids from Sumlar village of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district are at the receiving end bearing the brunt of extreme poverty and extremely harsh weather conditions alike.
Documents obtained through Right to Information (RTI), reveal that five cases were submitted by the local Panchayat to the Rural Development Department for release of payment for housing subsidy under PMAY Rural) in 2019., however, till date the payment has not been released due to reasons best known to the officials.
The local administration responded to the RTI by saying that due to “some technical issues, payment has been stopped”. No comprehensive response has been given by any of the government officials to the public representatives or to the victim's family. Amid three years the “technical issue” continues to remain unresolved.
During all these years, the government has spent more than a million rupees in construction of protection walls of Eidgah, Playground and construction of excess washrooms in Schools that are never being used by the people thus exposing the misplaced priorities of the administration while Panchayat Raj Institutions have equally turned their blind eye towards the issue of utmost importance.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) is an initiative of the Government of India which aims at providing affordable housing to the urban poor by the year 2022. The scheme was first launched on 25 June 2015.
Shaheena, who has been living in a tin shed with her husband and 3 children for the last 4 years said, "I knocked on every door but no one paid heed to my requests and pleas. PRI members are enjoying much hyped government initiatives but their people are surviving this harsh winter".
“My husband is a driver and is usually out of home. This harsh winter –chillai kalan doesn’t even spare the people living in bunglows, not to talk about us living in a tin shed,” she said. “Every morning I check the pulse of my sleeping kids and thank Allah for keeping them alive in this chilling cold,” she added.
“Whenever I put the requests in the Panchayat or before any other officer concerned, they used to avoid it and throw me out with unique excuses everyday”.
Local socio-political activists expressed resentment over the delay in providing housing subsidies to the family and said the local administration is responsible for giving bad names to the government and failing their schemes of public welfare on ground.
“We choose local representatives so they can solve our issues but this incident is very unfortunate, this should be resolved at the earliest,” Rouf Wani, a social activist said.
Locals requested District administration Bandipora for urgent help to this family as they are living in miserable condition besides urging concerned PRI members including DDC members, BDC chairperson and Saprnachs to plead the case of the family so that they are able to build their own house soon.
