Housing scheme for poor halted after complaints over construction

“Construction of flats has been put on hold across the state. In most districts,quality check has been completed and the district magistrates have sent their reports. Tomorrow,they will receive orders to resume construction,” said Balvinder Kumar,Principal Secretary of Ambedkar Gram Sabha Vikas Vibhag. In other districts,the administration is being directed to complete inspection work at the earliest and resume construction,he added.

“According to the reports received so far,construction work has been found substandard only in Farrukhabad and Bahraich. In other districts,complaints of unavailability of some facilities and civic services have come up,” said an official.

Now,district magistrates will set up technical committees to check the quality of construction every month. It will be their responsible to ensure quality,said Kumar.

Across the state,development authorities and the Uttar Pradesh Housing and Development Board (UPHDB) is building flats for the urban poor.

Directives were issued to the district magistrates,vice-chairman of development authorities and officials of UPHDB to inspect project sites and check the quality of work.

In the first phase of the scheme (2008-09),one lakh flats were to be constructed across the state. Against this target,while 98,400 flats have been constructed,rest are under construction. In the second phase (2009-10),91,391 flats are yet to be constructed in 71 districts.

According to the progress reports of the first phase,over 240 flats are under construction in Mau,60 in Badaun,150 in Basti,148 in Rae Bareli,124 in Ghaziabad,196 in Maharajganj and over 84 in Bijnor.

“Construction of over 1,000 flats in the first phase has been put on hold. In most districts,where construction has begun in the second phase,work has been stopped,” said an official.

If the quality of construction was found of substandard,action would be taken against the construction agency — the contractor may be blacklisted or recovery made from him,he added.

Taking a serious note of such complaints in Farrukhabad,the UPHDB had suspended its three engineers on Thursday.