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 over 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 two 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 statement said, adding that 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,” it said.
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,” the statement reads.
Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday accused the government of settling non-locals under the garb of “land for landless people” in the erstwhile state.
(KDC)
