SRINAGAR, Jan 29: Despite the direction of Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Elevation to the State’s Housing and Urban Development Department to utilize the services of city level technical experts who were appointed under Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) programme for the purpose of smooth and successful implementation of Housing For All, they remain disengaged since October 2015 affecting the project.

Officials told Excelsior that the disengagement of city level technical experts has resulted in the delay in implementation of ‘Housing for All Mission’ in the J&K State. Already there has been delay in submitting the DPRs and other action plan necessary for the implementation. It must be mentioned here that the HFA project is a time-bound programme. The target for the implementation of first phase is 2017, second is 2019 and third 2022.

The J&K Housing Board (Nodal Agency) for RAY had issued an advertisement in 2013 for the posts of various technical experts/coordinators and in 2014 after short listing of candidates as per the set eligibility criteria for 6 cities selected under Rajiv Awas Yojna project sanctioned by Ministry of Housing and Poverty Elevation. Accordingly, the interviews were conducted in April – May 2014 and finally after a gap of two year, the selection list was released in the month of February 2015 and 20 experts were selected across the State.

The RAY programme which was introduced by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at Centre in 2013 to provide affordable housing to those sections of the society who are economically poor. The RAY programme was also introduced in six J&K cities including Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla.

Accordingly, the survey was conducted in 2013 by IPE Global (nominated by J&K Housing Board) the DPRs and other action was prepared after the survey report. However, the DPR were not approved by the Union Ministry as well as State-level monitoring committee due to various deficiencies.