Srinagar, July 06: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday said it took note of the prompt clarification by the government on her remarks about housing for the poor made by its president Mehbooba Mufti wherein she “expressed dismay at the lingering lack of transparency in the process”.
A party spokesperson in a statement issued here said, “The main question of a sharp jump in numbers of homeless ‘people’ from 19047 in 2021 to nearly 2 lakh ‘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 the 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 party said, adding that the claim that 2 lakh identified households still remain homeless raises doubts about the sharp increase. Either the exercise is flawed or the intentions are suspect, it added.
The PDP said the latest announcement made at the highest level comes close on the heels of the allotment of tenements to non-local workers in Jammu. “Does any state in the country reciprocate this for thousands of workers, hawkers, and small vendors who move to plains during winters? It is, therefore, necessary for the government to come out with a detailed clarification on the process of identification of beneficiaries,” the spokesperson said.
