The Times of India                 15.11.2010

PCMC to conduct draw of lots for EWS housing in December

PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will conduct a draw of lots to select beneficiaries for the first phase of its housing scheme for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in December.

Ashish Sharma, municipal commissioner, said, "The beneficiaries of the EWS housing scheme will have to pay the revised share of Rs 3.76 lakh as per the general body resolution."

The union government had, in 2007, given the primary approval for the PCMC's EWS housing scheme, costing Rs 449.70 crore, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The PCMC is constructing 13,250 tenements, where each flat has an area of 400 sq.ft. The civic body had promised to provide the flats for Rs 1.5 lakh each. However, the price was later increased due to the escalation in cost. The first phase of the project is being implemented on a 75 acre plot in sectors 17 and 19, which the PCMC got from the Pimpri-Chinchwad New Township Development Authority. In the first phase, 6,700 flats are being constructed. A total of 17,044 applications were received for the housing scheme. Of these, 15,252 applicants were found to be eligible.

Meanwhile, Baba Kamble, president, Kashtakari Kamgar Panchayat, said that the applicants of the EWS housing scheme will carry out a protest march in Nagpur during the winter session of the state legislative assembly on December 9. "We want to stress on our demand that the beneficiary share of EWS houses should not be increased and that the union and state governments should bear the increased expenditure due to cost escalation," he said.

Manav Kamble, president, Nagari Hakka Suraksha Samiti, has also demanded that the PCMC fulfil its promise and provide houses for Rs 1.5 lakh. He has sent a letter in this regard to Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor Yogesh Behl.