800 apply for PM's housing scheme, but where's the land?

the goan I network
MARGAO
Padhan Mantri Awaas Yojana scheme has attracted an overwhelming eight hundred-odd applications from the citizens of Margao and Fatorda, wherein the applicants are either seeking a plot or loan to build a house.
Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) officials, however, maintained that there's no ready- made land available in Margao to allot plots for the applicants under the Prime Minister's housing scheme. In fact, a GSUDA official pointed out that the issue of land availability will have to be resolved by the government before the question of allotment of plots to the applicants.
"The government will have to take a call to make available the land in order to allot plots under the scheme. We will write to the government, besides the Goa Housing Board and the Goa Rehabilitation Board whether there's any available land to allot plots for the applicants", he said. Hundreds of citizens from the commercial capital, particularly from Margao had made a beeline throughout October before officials of the Hyderabad-based agency, which has bene roped in by the government to carry out a survey on the demand for housing from people in the urban areas of the state.
Sources in the know pointed out that overwhelming majority of the applicants, who had made a beeline to the office, are believed to be migrants, many of whom hail from the migrant inhabited Moti Dongor slum. If sources are to be believed, Moti Dongor residents have applied for the housing scheme in large numbers knowing well there's hardly land available in and Margao to accommodate them under the scheme.
However, most of the applicants from Moti Dongor are of the view that by applying for the scheme, they have conveyed a message to the government that they are landless people inhabiting the slum, hoping that their status may force the government to acquire or develop their existing land for the purpose of housing.