MARGAO
A total 906 persons from Margao have applied for affordable housing in partnership under the Prime Minister’s Housing for All Plan of Action (HFAPoA) scheme at a whopping cost of Rs 13.59 crore, but the Margao Municipal Council and the stakeholders are faced with the same old issue “ where’s the land in the commercial capital to implement the housing scheme for the hundreds of urban poor?
The number of applications submitted by the hundreds of urban poor beneficiaries for the Prime Minister’s Housing scheme is officially pegged at around 963, including 906 applications under Affordable Housing in Partnership, 25 applications under the credit linked subsidy scheme and 32 applications under the individual house construction or enhancement.
Representatives of the Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Hyderabad, the agency engaged to prepare the ground work for the implementation of the scheme, explained to Margao Councillors that the scheme can be implemented in the city to provide relief to the urban poor if there’s suitable land for the purpose. While the City Fathers gave their nod to the Agency for the implementation of the scheme in the commercial capital, the question of land available has come back to haunt the stakeholders.
For, there’s no government land available in the city to provide housing for the homeless. As things stand today, the city has two notified slums at Moti Dognor and Azad Nagar, if Margao Municipal Chief officer Johnson Fernandes is to be believed. But, the moot question remains unanswered given that even these notified slums are facing the land ownership issues.
Says Chief Officer Johnson: “It is a fact that Margao has two notified slums at Moti Dongor and Azad Nagar, but the land does not belong to the Municipality or the government.
