Odisha Govt sanctions 54,275 houses for Homeless people

ONI Bureau: In another step towards ‘Home for Homeless’, Odisha Government has sanctioned 54,275 houses in favour of economically weaker sections of the society living in 113 Urban Local Bodies ( ULBs) as of today.

This was known from the State level Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee of Odisha Urban Housing Mission (OUHM) under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi in secretariat conference hall on Friday wherein Secretary Housing &  Urban Development G.Mathivathnan outlined the issues for discussion.

Considering the progress in the matter, Chief Secretary Padhi directed the department to intensify the field level supervision and expedite the rate of completion of the houses. Reportedly, the houses are constructed by the beneficiaries themselves and money is released to their account.

Each house is being geo- tagged. So far Rs.103.5 Cr has already been released to the beneficiaries with zero pendency for payment at OUHM level.

Accordingly it was decided that hence forth Rs. 40,000/- would be released to the beneficiary at the level of foundation laying, Rs.60,000/- would be released after completion of the plinth, Rs.60,000/- would be released for roof casting and finally Rs.40,000/- would be released for finishing including fixing of doors & windows, electrification and coloring.

Presenting the updates, Mission Director OUHM Sri Suresh Chandra Dalai appraised that from July, 2016 till May, 2017 around 29,797 houses were sanctioned in 3 phases. Till now work order has been issued against 24117 houses thereby recording an achievement of around 84%.

The construction of these houses are in different phases. The sanction order of additional 20,345 houses was communicated to ULBs during the month of November, 2017. The ULBS are preparing for issue of work order after due verification of land details of the beneficiaries. The committee sanctioned new 5133 houses in today’s meeting with estimated project cost of around Rs 156.40 cr.

Available data show, each house is estimated around Rs. 3 lakhs. Out of this Rs.2 lakh is provided by both the Central and State Govt. Apart from that State Govt provides Rs.20,000/- to each beneficiary as an incentive grant for completion of the houses in 4 months from the issue of work order; and, Rs.8000/- is provided to the beneficiary from Swachh Bhrat Mission for construction of toilet. Rest of the cost is contributed by the beneficiary for construction of his own house.