Chief Minister Mayawati re-launched a housing scheme for economically weaker sections of the society on Tuesday and renamed it as Kanshiram Shehri Gharib Awas Yojna. The scheme was earlier named as Kanshiram Shehri Samagra Vikas Yojna and was launched a few months back.The announcement coincided with the anniversary of Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) forming government for the first time in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati justified the re-launching and the renaming of the scheme, which envisages building one lakh houses every year for economically weak people for the next five years and said it has been restructured in a way that would avoid hindrances caused in the implementation of the programme. “The local bodies due to their vested political interests did not extend their cooperation in the execution of the earlier scheme. The Government has received many written complaints in this connection from the local representatives,” she said, adding this led to the Government to change the scheme from Shehri Samgra Vikas Yojna to Shehri Gharib Awas Yojna.As per the restructured scheme, the District Magistrates have been made responsible for the implementation of the scheme. The budget provision meant for the earlier scheme, she said, would be utilised in the new scheme.The houses, built under the scheme, will have facilities like clean drinking water, toilets, streetlamps and it will be carried out in phased manner. In the first phase, the scheme will be launched in all the 71 district headquarters. While 1,000 houses will be built in small cities, 1,500 homes will be set up big cities. All destitute widows, handicapped and others living below the poverty line, will be given houses under the scheme. “But in these categories, SC/ST families will be given priority,” Mayawati said.
