SHILLONG: The Government has decided to distribute aluminium sheets instead of the regular Corrugated Galvanised Iron (CGI) sheets to poor households under the Chief Minister’s Housing Assistance Programme, the launch of which might be delayed due to litigation.
The litigation comes as the tender called by the government has limited the scope of applying only to primary producers of aluminium.
Housing Minister Zenith Sangma said the tender has already been called for providing roofing materials to the poor and the tender committee will soon hold meetings regarding the matter. There are two components of the Chief Minister’s Housing Assistance Programme.
“One will be to provide only the roofing materials and the other will be the construction of dwelling houses,” Zenith Sangma said.
The Minister said that three bundles of aluminium sheets will be provided to the poor households in the State as per the first component.
“The tender committee will meet to finalise the matter. The scheme was delayed due to litigation,” he added.
“Earlier, a case was filed against the proposed scheme, but it was withdrawn later. However, yet again another petition has been filed in the High Court that will come up for hearing on June 28,” Sangma said.
The fresh case was filed since the tender notice of the government says the supplier of aluminium sheets should be the primary producer of the product which means that the supplier will have to engage itself in mining of steel and its processing.
Justifying the tender notice, Sangma said that if it is not a primary producer, there is always a tendency to make aluminium sheets out of recycled materials for supply.
Currently, there are only three primary producers of aluminium sheets in the country. Sangma said that the government decided not to provide CGI sheets since they get rusted over a period of time unlike aluminium sheets.
“Moreover, the company is ready to buy back used and damaged aluminium sheets, if any, and it will provide at least 60 per cent of the cost to the beneficiaries,” Sangma said.
As far as the second option for the people to construct dwelling houses is concerned, Sangma said that out of the total cost of the house, 10 per cent will have to be borne by the beneficiary and a fixed amount of Rs 75,000 will be provided by the government as assistance.
“The rest will be loan component and the government may act as the loan guarantor,” Sangma added.
However, the beneficiaries who opt for roofing materials cannot apply for the construction of dwelling units.
