Aiming to be the first State in the country to provide ‘pucca’ houses to all its citizens, the Sikkim Government launched a Rs 211 crore ‘social housing’ project. Under the project, housing will be provided to around 30, 000 people residing in ‘kutcha’ houses as on January 1, 2011, an official release said.
In its first phase, the project, named the ‘Chief Minister’s Rural Housing Mission’, will allocate around 6,000 single-storey earthquake-resistant ‘pucca’ houses free of cost by 2013 to the poor, C.C Wangdi, project director, said in the release.
The 6,000 ‘kutcha’ house dwellers have been identified through a baseline survey conducted by gram sabhas, followed by multiple levels of supervision and cross-checks by the rural management and development department.
So far, the State Government has invested Rs 125 crore in the project under the State Plan and Rs 70 crore has been earmarked in this financial year. “The administration has completed construction work on 1,137 houses, while work on 3,029 houses will be completed by December next,” Wangdi said.
The housing project is being implemented in convergence with Centrally-sponsored schemes such as Indira Awaas Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana for electrification, National Rural Drinking Water Programme etc.