The Srinagar district in Kashmir valley is witnessing a huge pressure resulting from Rural-Urban shift. Not only the basic amenities services are affected but the housing demand has become acute in nature in light of large scale urban migration.
Families that need land for construction of houses are not in a position to afford the costs. Paradoxically the businessmen who want to invest in real estate have plenty of land available leaving the middle class families struggling in urban areas to own a dwelling.
Pertinently, a major chunk of the migrated population from rural areas is the work force that belongs to economically weaker sections, low income groups and middle income groups of our society.
With almost no capital or not enough resources to afford a house or dwelling of their own, these families are forced to live in rented accommodation, slums or take shelter in informal settlements.
This situation never allows them to grow economically and overall hampers poverty reduction efforts. In order to fulfill the dream of these families to own their houses, the central government had announced a scheme ‘Housing for All’.
But this scheme didn’t pick as the sector was riddled with several challenges. Availability of land and high construction costs was the main impediment. Besides, the scheme lacked attractions as incentives and other possible concessions were not loaded in the scheme.
Need of the hour is the governor led administration must take cognizance of the lacunas of this scheme and take up the matter with the central government at an earliest.
