Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s comments have triggered a major controversy in the Kashmir valley after she claimed that the admin was planning to convert Jammu Kashmir into a slum area.
Addressing a press conference over LG Manoj Sinha’s statement in which he had said that nearly two lakh “homeless” families will be provided shelter under centrally sponsored Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojna, Mehbooba Mufti said the homeless population in Jammu Kashmir is much lesser than two lakh families.
Questioning the intent of the J-K admin led by Manoj Sinha she had said, “Who are these people who are being brought to Jammu Kashmir. Is Kashmir being converted into a slum colony?”
She said that the administration was importing slums and poverty into the region under the pretext of providing housing to homeless individuals, which she believes is an attempt to alter the demographic composition of Jammu Kashmir.
Govt Rebuts Mehbooba Mufti’s Press statement On Land Allotment for PMAY Houses
PMAY (Grameen) phase -1 started on 1.4.2016 in which 2,57,349 Houseless cases were identified in J&K in SECC data 2011 and after due verification by Gram sabhas, out of which 136152 cases were sanctioned for J&K under the overall commitment of Hon’ble Prime Minister for “Housing for all by 2022”.
Per unit assistance of 1.30 lakhs is provided per house by Govt of India under the scheme. Minimum size of the house prescribed is 1 marla.
The Government conducted Awaas+ survey during January, 2018 to March, 2019 to identify those beneficiaries which claimed to have been left out under the 2011 SECC. The data of beneficiaries captured through Awaas+ was utilized to fill the gaps between overall target and eligible beneficiaries made available from SECC Permanent Wait List (PWL) PMAY PHASE-II(AWAS Plus) Grameen started from 2019 onwards based on a survey of 2018-19, done pan India, in which 2.65 Lakhs houseless cases were recorded in J&K and only target of 63426 houses was given to J&K. These houses have been sanctioned in 2022 only.
This phase of the scheme is getting over on 31.3.24.
Based on good performance of J&K in sanction and completion of houses, on 30th May2023, 199550 more PMAY AWAS PLUS houses have been sanctioned as a special dispensation, in order to ensure housing for all for all 2.65 lakhs houseless persons, who were part of PWL2019.
Survey is based on clear guidelines on the basis of following criteria: a. All houseless b. Those living in zero, one or two room kachha houses, c. Multi layered prioritization as defined in section 4 of the scheme guidelines. Those houseless persons who don’t have land or clear title of land or have that category of land where construction is not permitted, couldn’t be sanctioned house, even if they are part of this Permanent waiting list.
Based on the field level survey, out of 199550, 2711 cases were identified who don’t have clear title of land and fall in following categories: a. People residing on State land; b. People residing on Forest land; c. People residing in Rakhs and Farms land, where construction is not permitted; d. People sitting on Custodian land; and e. Land allotted to displaced people by the Government near Dachigam park for agriculture purposes, where construction is not permitted. f. Any other category of cases which are otherwise eligible for housing but do not have any land available for construction.”
As the government cannot sanction houses to someone who doesn’t have land, therefore in order to ensure housing for all, the government has taken a policy decision to allot 5 marlas of land to these 2711 cases so that they can get houses.
Therefore, Ms. Mufti’s statement that the government is allotting land to 2 lakh odd persons is factually incorrect and all statements made by her are without having any understanding of the PMAY scheme and Revenue laws of the J&K which permit allotment of land to landless, for housing purposes. So neither any change in the law has been made nor any outsider is being allotted land.
These 2711 cases are part of the 2018-19 PWL of houseless persons of J&K, who were debarred from having house, just because either they didn’t have land or the land they have is state/forest/any other category of land where construction is not permitted. Data being quoted by her is of Housing & urban affairs, while PMAYG scheme is of Ministry of Rural Development for rural areas of J&K.
PDP takes note of clarification issued by the Govt but has questions.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) while taking note of the prompt clarification by the government on the Press conference about housing for the poor held by its president Mehbooba Mufti expresses dismay at the lingering lack of transparency in the process.
According to a party spokesperson, the main question of a sharp jump in numbers of homeless ‘people’ from 19047 in 2021 to nearly 2lac ‘households’ remains unaddressed. PMAY has been in operation for decades in the state under different titles and a procedure has been in place which always was monitored by GOI itself from identification to the execution levels.
The assistance would be given generally to poorest landholders and in case of people without land there was a process in place to allot them land out of the community lands like Kahcharai, state land, Khalisa etc.
The claim that 2 lac identified households still remain homeless raises doubts about the sharp increase. Either the exercise is flawed, or the intentions are suspect.
The spokesman said the latest announcement made at the highest level comes close on the heels of allotment of tenements to non-local workers in Jammu. Does any state in the country reciprocate this for thousands of workers, hawkers, small vendors who move to plains during winters? With Agency inputs