Standing committee on defence raps MoD for shortfall in housing for married military personnel

The committee noted that the Directorate General of Married Accommodation Project was raised by Government of India under the supervision of the Engineer-in-Chief of the Army for constructing married accommodation for the three services, with the aim of overcoming the deficiency of accommodation for service personnel. A total deficiency of two lakh dwelling units had been slated for construction in four separate phases for addressing the deficiency.

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“The argument put forth by the Ministry that outsourcing fifty percent work to Central Public Sector Undertakings contributed to the delay in the construction work is indicative of inadequacies in the monitoring system with MAP,” the committee said. Another reason given for the delay by the DG MAP was that big ticket players had underbid the project. This explanation was dismissed by the committee which noted that this does not seem to be a plausible explanation. “It is strange that despite many years of experience, the MAP could not differentiate between ‘under’ or ‘overbidding,” the committee noted.

The report said that although the DG MAP stated before the committee that the MAP has got assured budgetary support and there was no shortage of funds, on the contrary, the data provided indicates that while MAP made a projection of Rs. 2830 crore during financial year 2016-17, only Rs. 1546.85 crore was allotted to it.

The committee desired that instead of making assurances, MAP should make improvements in its working which should be reflected at the ground level. The committee is also of the view that MAP should look into the aspect of obtaining prefabricated construction material which is available in the market so as to speed up the construction work and avoid delays in providing accommodation for the Services fighting for the nation,” the report said.

The standing committee has also directed that MAP should identify those areas where no accommodation outside the military area is available including cities like Jaisalmer and Barmer in Rajasthan and give priority for construction of dwelling units in such areas.

In a scathing criticism of the ‘satisfaction levels’ of the military personnel regarding allotment of houses as put forward by the MoD, the committee found that the authorization and satisfaction level as calculated by the ministry is misleading and gives an incorrect impression that if the satisfaction level is 100 per cent as per the scale, it would imply that every armed forces personnel has been given accommodation. The committee stated that the MoD should take necessary steps to ensure that satisfaction level, in case of officers as well as jawans is achieved in the true sense of term.

It was noted that Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Other Ranks (ORs) of Army were authorized 14 per cent married accommodation as per ‘Scale of Accommodation’ in 1983. This was revised to 35 per cent in 2009. Authorisation levels are decided taking into account likely level of deployment in peace areas and likely percentage of personnel who would be married and moving with families to places of posting. The report states that the increase in authorization reflects the changes seen due to changes in socio-economic conditions and increasing number of nuclear families.

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Krishna • Apr 21, 6:01 PM