Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) aims at Providing Housing for All (HFA) by 2022 when the Nation Complete 75 years of its independence, ASHOKENAGAR-KALYANGARH MUNICIPALITY of North 24 ParganasDistricthas been selected for inclusion in the initial phase during the current fiscal year.The town has 123 nos. of slums in total.
To give pucca house for every family is currently on the global agenda. One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to ‘achieve significant improvement in the lives of slum dwellers, by 2022 . Similar goals are set forth by PradhanMantriAwasYojana within year 2022, to create pucca house for every family.
In this background, to get experience and simply the courage to tide over such problems, our municipal officials and elected representatives have visited all wards and its all slum after receiving the House for All programme which was announced by the Central Government.
In tune with the time frame we have formulated the municipal vision and sub component wise development objectives for effective and efficient municipal performances in respect of both the service and development systems.
The DPG and the DTGs have very skilfully utilized their experience and expertise on one hand, and the services reports, proposal received from different stake holders at different stages on the other. They have successfully taped local technical resources and technical persons by way of involving them in the HFAPOA preparation process. All this, it is felt, has made the plan preparation activities more realistic and commensurate with the socio economic needs and aspirations of the citizens at large, albeit always keeping in mind the overall organizational capacity and financial resources of the municipality. In other words, the board perspective has all along been comprehensive development for citizens irrespective of their socio economic background and strengthening the municipal organization to be capable of addressing citizens charters rolled out through various projects encompassing all the sub components.
It is heartening to note that in all our endeavours people’s participation including the poorest of the poor and the minorities has been ensured for the project of Housing for All. A number of workshops conducted with people from economically backward section have made us realise about the hurdles they experience in their day-to-day life. People’s enlightenment through the planning process is a new and encouraging phenomenon to be of immense help in the future years also.
Over and above this, much emphasis has been laid on identifying and prioritising issues and interventions, involving the citizens and others the stakeholders down to the not only ward level as well as para level before finalizing the project proposals and validation of House for all projects with other infrastructures which will be implemented by AMRUT and other funds. In fine, the whole thing was placed before the specially covered meeting of the board of councillors; while after threadbare discussion and due consideration passed the HFAPOA for submission to SLSMC.
Preparation of Housing For All Plan of Action along with, its implementation and monitoring opened a new challenge to us – the challenge of providing all basic services to all people and ensuring equitable socio-economic development of the people of our ULB.
In spite of our best efforts there might occur some lacunae, which may be construed as normal human fallibilities. Any suggestion received from SLSMC in this regard shall be adhered to and incorporated in the HFAPOA by the Board of Councillors.
We are particularly indebted to Director SUDA and others officials for their all-out support during the stages of the plan preparation.
We are also indebted to all our Municipal Staff including the Nodal Officer, Councillors, Ward Committee members, members of the Senior Citizens, Medical Practitioners, Educationists, Business Houses, Traders Associations, CDS Organization, Cultural Organization, Trade Unions and NGOs operating in our municipal area for their continuing work and co-optation. We also express our thankfulness to the Municipal Affairs Department Government of West Bengal &Ministry of Housing & Poverty Alleviation, Govt. of India for its valuable training &guidance.