Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Mar 21: Jammu and Kashmir and city-level technical experts engaged in the implementation of Housing for All (HSA), under the Central Government’s flagship program Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), are facing a dire situation as they have been without salary for the last nine months.
Nearly 68 experts, including project engineers, town planners, GIS specialists and training coordinators, have been affected. PMAY was launched in 2015 with the aim of constructing approximately two crore houses in the country within seven years, benefiting homeless people, poor urban people, and those belonging to weaker sections of society.
The experts said despite their hard work, the technical experts have not received salaries, causing a severe situation. They claim to have played a crucial role in securing the top award for the implementation of PMAY-Urban during the “India Urban Housing Conclave 2022.” “The authorities are boasting about the awards but ignoring the people who helped them achieve this feat,” said a city-level technical expert.
Another technical expert expressed frustration, saying: “We are all trained professionals who have left lucrative jobs to serve our land, but the government’s behavior has let us down. These degrees are useless if they cannot help us then feed our families.”
The experts revealed that the Government provides only a lump sum of Rs. 35,000 in Jammu and Kashmir, and there was a wide gap between the proposed salary structure and the current salary. “Each CLTC expert has been allotted 2-4 towns, and each expert is performing diligently for the implementation of the mission without any proper infrastructure provided or travel allowances, etc. The expenditure incurred on multiple activities, including geo-tagging and monitoring bill preparation, stationary, etc., is being paid from our own resources and salary, which is stagnant at Rs. 35,000 or only slightly less as per the capacity budget plan for PMAY-U guidelines,” they said.
Shabir Ahmed Keen, Managing Director of J&K Housing Board, told Excelsior that their salaries will be released by March 31. “We are working on it, and their salaries will be released soon,” he said.
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