New Delhi: Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Thursday reiterated Meghalaya’s demand for housing projects in the New Shillong Township (NST) since the capital city is almost bursting at its seams.
“We already have an acute backlog of housing requirements and we would like to pray before the Ministry to allow the State Government to take up housing project in New Shillong Township which is a part of the Shillong Master Plan area and where land is readily available with the State Government,” Ampareen said.
She was speaking at the meeting of the State Urban Affairs Ministers here on Thursday.
She also urged the Union Government to allow the State to extend housing programme for the poor in other smaller urban centres as well as new urban centres which have come up in the 2011 Census and where the requirement is much more profound.
Creation of additional housing stock in such smaller centres will go a long way in checking migration to the bigger cities and towns in the State, she argued.
The New Shillong Township project was conceived to accommodate the future population of Shillong as projected in the Shillong Master Plan and the State Government had earmarked a target of 500 hectares to be acquired in Phase-I for uses like administrative, commercial, community facilities, institutional, general housing and basic infrastructure.
“We would also like to place before the Ministry that in spite of the immense difficulties which we have faced stemming from our peculiar constitutional position, we have still been able to perform reasonably well in the implementation of the reforms agenda under JNNURM,” the Minister said.
In the circumstances above, imposition of the 10 per cent cut in JNNURM funding is not fair and is likely to affect many of the sanctioned and on-going schemes, she said, while demanding restoration of the funds which have already been deducted.
Ampareen pointed out that some of the reforms which are impossible to implement in Meghalaya – like the provisions of the 74th Amendment – should not be insisted upon by the Union Ministry. The Constitution of India has exempted major part of the State which constitutes “tribal areas” from the purview of the 74th Amendment of the Constitution, she reminded.
“Although, we in the North East deal with urban problems at a smaller magnitude as compared to major urban centres in the rest of the country, yet our problems are similar and varied in nature and unique in certain aspects,” Ampareen said, adding, “We also have problems of governance, problems of congestion, problems of strained infrastructure and problems of limited resources.”
The Minister lamented that in Meghalaya, the proportion of households living below the poverty line is staggeringly high touching almost 50 per cent. “Still the State is implementing the Ministry of Urban Development and Asian Development Bank funded North Eastern Region Capital Cities Development Investment Programme in the right earnest.
She, however, admitted that the State was slightly lagging behind in implementation of the Rajiv Awas Yojana and the National Urban Livelihood Mission. Under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), the State has also undertaken construction of housing units in Tura, Nongpoh and Williamnagar, she stated.
She came down heavily on Hindustan Prefab Ltd. and expressed the State’s disappointment over tardy progress of the company on the allotted work of construction of housing and slum development programme under Basic Services To The Urban Poor (BSUP) and IHSDP.
“Midway through the work the company informed the State Government that they would not be able to continue with the work and this has put the State Government in a difficult situation incurring time and cost overrun,” she said.