Housing for All

Housing for All (HFA) is an important scheme floated by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. There are large number of poor and homeless people in the country and Prime Minister Modi has said that his Government would like to work on a housing scheme so that by 2022 no family was left without a shelter. This is indeed an ambitious project. 25 towns of the State of Jammu and Kashmir were approved for inclusion in the HFA scheme. However, Union Ministry of Housing has decided to include another group of 55 more towns of the State in the scheme. This is heartening news and additional towns have been identified.
Despite economic development during decades of independence, most of our rural towns have remained somewhat unattended. Since the country is in a mood of taking care of all citizens including those living in the rural areas of the State will come under one or the other scheme of development. Our towns are primitive in terms of layout and facilities. We need lot of effort to convert these towns into modern smart towns with maximum of facilities as in urban areas of the State. We are happy that a good number of our towns in the State will meet with changes that will improve the quality of life and education.
However, observers are raising some questions which the Government authorities concerned with the subject are supposed to respond. If these towns are to be converted into smart towns where is the technical manpower that is required for bringing about the change in the towns? We are short of skilled labour and technical manpower. The existing technical expert strength for State Level Technical Cell is only four comprising field of specialization of project engineering, town planning, Geo Information System (GIS) and social development expert against the allocated 5-10 maximum professionals, which State can engage as per laid down guidelines as has been done in other States of the country.
In case of City Level Technical Cell, the total existing strength of technical experts is 14 comprising the field of project engineering specialist, town planner, GIS, Management Information System (MIS), social development expert etc., out of which in Kashmir region (including Leh and Kargil), there are only 7 experts for 13 towns. We hope that while more towns are proposed to be brought under the central scheme, efforts will be made to provide the requisite staff before the work is taken in hand.

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