Indian Express 12.11.2009

Housing scheme: after spot verification, 89% applicants found ineligible

Of the 3,476 applications received for the allotment of free houses to the urban poor in Lucknow under the Manya-war Shree Kanshiram Shahari Gareeb Awaas Yojna, only 363 have been found eligible.

The rest, which constitutes more than 89 per cent, were found ineligible during spot verification, as the applicants owned assets like pucca house, land and vehicles.

Interestingly, the administration found that around 250 applicants had submitted Above Poverty Line (APL) cards but in the spot verification they were found to be poor. The district administration is going to send a proposal to the government so that they may be allotted the houses.

Since 1,500 houses are being built under the scheme in Lucknow, 1,137 houses will not have any deserving applicants.

According to sources, the government will invite fresh applications for these houses, which are being built on city’s outskirts.

Chief Minister Mayawati had announced the scheme last year. It was proposed to build 1.01 lakh houses in the form of multi-storied apartments across the state. Only people below poverty line could apply for the houses.

In Lucknow, the administration invited application in February-March. Altogether 3,476 applications were received and the verification work was completed last week. As many as 2,237 applicants were found to be holding APL cards.

“Applications which do not fulfill the criteria will be cancelled,” said O P Pathak, Additional District Magistrate. He said applications would be invited again shortly.

Pathak said the allotment will begin soon after LDA completes the work. The houses were to be built by August, but as of now only the structure of the buildings has been constructed.

Indian Express 12.11.2009

State to reserve 50% seats for women in self-governing bodies

The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday decided to reserve 50 per cent seats for women in all the local self-government bodies. The government will bring a Bill to this effect in the next Assembly session.

Gujarat will be the sixth state to have 50 per cent quota for women in such bodies after Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Briefing media persons after the weekly Cabinet meeting, government spokesman Jay Narayan Vyas said the decision follows an initiative taken by the Chief Minister towards woman empowerment. Recently, the state BJP’s executive committee had passed a resolution to provide 50 per cent reservation for women in the local self-government bodies, he added.

Meanwhile, sources in the state Urban Development and Panchayat departments said that the local self-government bodies include all the seven municipal corporations — Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Junagadh — the 159 municipalities, 26 district panchayats, 224 taluka panchayats and 13,600 village panchayats. The government is already providing 33 per cent reservation for women in these bodies, a senior Panchayat official said. The official added that the 50 per cent representation for women was one of the recommendations incorporated in a report on the proposed electoral reforms suggested by the State Election Commission recently. The Commission is likely to submit this report to the government shortly.

Leader of the Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil told The Indian Express: “The Congress-led UPA government had, at its recent Cabinet meeting, passed a resolution to provide 50 per cent reservation for women in these bodies across the country. Modi is just following the Congress policy to empower women.”