No outsider being allotted land: J&K administration on Mehbooba Mufti's charges

No outsider was being allotted land in the Union Territory and there was no change in the law the Jammu and Kashmir administration has said rebutting PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti allegation that the administrations move to provide houses to the homeless was a ruse to change the demography of the regionLieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday said the Jammu and Kashmir administration has started providing 150 square yard plots to landless families for the construction of their houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna PMAYThe rural development department has identified 183 lakh families who do not have their own houses We are working on it It is a step that will not only provide a house to them but transform their lives he had said claiming that plots to 2711 landless families across the union territory have already been allottedAt a press conference earlier on Wednesday Mehbooba the former chief minister of JampK accused the Lt Governors administration of importing slums and poverty into the erstwhile state under the pretext of providing housing to homeless people She called it an attempt to change the demography of the Union TerritoryThe LG made an announcement about giving land to 199 lakh landless people in JK Doubts and concerns have come to the fore as to who these landless people in Jammu and Kashmir are According to the figures of the central government placed before Parliament there are only 19000 homeless families in Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba told reportersHours later an official spokesman said The statement of Ms Mufti that government is allotting land to two 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 JK which permit allotment of land to landless for housing purposesSo neither any change in the law has been made nor any outsider is being allotted land he addedThe spokesman said PMAY Grameen phase1 started on April 1 2016 in which 257349 houseless cases were identified in JK in SECC data 2011 and after due verification by Gram sabhas 136152 cases were sanctioned for JK under the overall commitment of the prime minister for Housing for all by 2022Per unit assistance of Rs 130 lakhs is provided per house by the Government of India under the scheme Minimum size of the house prescribed is 1 marla he said in a statementThe government conducted Awaas plus survey during January 2018 to March 2019 to identify those beneficiaries which claimed to have been left out under the 2011 SECC he saidThe spokesman said the data of beneficiaries captured through Awaas plus was utilised to fill the gaps between overall target and eligible beneficiaries made available from SECC Permanent Wait List PWLPMAY PhaseII AWAS Plus Grameen started from 2019 onwards based on survey of 201819 done pan India in which 265 lakh houseless cases were recorded in JK and only a target of 63426 houses was given to JK These houses have been sanctioned in 2022 only he addedThis phase of the scheme is getting over on March 31 next year Based on good performance of JK in sanction and completion of houses on May 30 this year 199550 more PMAY Awas Plus houses have been sanctioned as a special dispensation in order to ensure housing for all 265 lakhs houseless people who were part of PWL 2019 the spokesman saidSurvey is based on clear guidelines on the basis of the criteria which includes all houseless those living in zero one or two room kachha houses multilayered prioritisation as defined in section 4 of the scheme guidelines he saidThe criteria also includes those houseless persons who do not have land or clear title of land or have that category of land where construction is not permitted could not be sanctioned house even if they are part of this PWL the spokesman saidBased on the field level survey out of 199550 2711 cases were identified who do not have clear title of land and fall in categories of people residing on state land people residing on forest land people residing in rakhs and rarms land where construction is not permitted people sitting on custodian land land allotted to displaced people by government near Dachigam Park for agriculture purpose where construction is not permitted and any other category of cases who are otherwise eligible for housing but do not have any land available for construction he saidAs the government cannot sanction house to someone who does not have land therefore in order to ensure housing for all the government has taken a policy decision to allot five marlas of land to these 2711 cases so that they can get houses the spokesman saidThese 2711 cases are part of the 201819 PWL of houseless persons of JK who were debarred from having a house just because either they did not have land or the land they have is stateforestany other category of land where construction is not permitted he saidData being quoted by the PDP president is of the Housing and Urban Affairs while the PMAYG scheme is of the Ministry of Rural Development for rural areas of JK the spokesman saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever