With an aim to provide clean and hygienic Pacca houses with basic amenities to all the rural houseless households living in dilapidated houses, the department of Rural Development is constructing 12456 houses under Pradhan Mantri AwaasYojna (Gramin).Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law and Justice Abdul Haq Khan informed this while chairing a meeting convened to review implementation of various centrally sponsored schemes including PMAY, MGNREGA and Swach Bharat Abhiyan.The meeting was attended by Director RDD Jammu RK Bhat, Director Rural Sanitation Nazir Ahmad, Additional Secretary Rural Development, Rakesh Badiyal, Joint Director Finance Shabir Ahmad, SE RDD Jammu Balbir Singh, ACDs, BDOs, DPOs and other senior officers of various districts.The Minister was informed that under PMAY (G) the department has set a target of construction of 38772 houses and 12456 houses are being constructed while 304 houses have already been completed. It was informed that the department has registered 18964 beneficiaries under the scheme, of which, 15707 have been geo tagged.
Minister was informed that the houses being constructed under the scheme are being geo-tagged to ensure transparency as every person can identify the work done by the department.Later, Abdul Haq interacted with the field staff of the Panchayats and blocks and reviewed implementation of the scheme in their respective Panchayats. He stressed on the officers to accelerate the pace of work to achieve the targets in time.The Minister said government is committed to improve the standard of living of the economically backward class of people and have promised clean and hygienic Pacca houses with all basic amenities to the rural houseless households or the households living in dilapidated houses. He said government provides a financial assistance of Rs 1.30 lakh for construction of house plus assistance of Rs 12000 for construction of latrines under convergence with SBM and about 95 labour days under MGNREGA.While reviewing implementation of Swach Bharat Mission, the Minister assured that the state will be declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) by July 2018. He urged the officials to work with zeal to achieve the set target.The Minister was informed that the department has constructed 4.17 lakh Individual Household Latrines (IHHL) and 110 Community Sanitary Complexes till March 2018 and Rs 144.45 crore have been spend, so far.