Chandigarh administration has left thousands of employees fuming, after scrapping the Self Financing Housing Scheme which was a self-financing scheme for UT employees. This news came as a blow to the employees who were patiently waiting.
This scheme is expected to provide affordable housing to government employees in Chandigarh. However, with the passing of 16 years, the city has cited a surge in land costs, which became the main explanation behind the cancellation of the project.
The scheme was launched in 2008 by CHB, with a plan to construct as many as 4000 apartments for the employees in Sectors 52,53 and 56. In a lucky draw in 2010 around 3930 employees among 7827 applicants were selected, who also deposited around 57 crore with the CHB under the scheme. Later the scheme was shelved.
As per the report submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court last month in the form of an affidavit by Sorabh Kumar Arora, Joint Secretary Estate Chandigarh administration, stated,” The present status report by way of the affidavit is being filed to apprise this court about the decision of the Chandigarh administration to not go ahead with the UT Employee’s Self-Financing Housing Scheme, 2008, and consequently refund the money deposited by the petitioner and other applicants.”
The affidavit also mentioned,” The scheme was launched in 2008. Since its launch, a period of 15 years has already passed resulting thereby that the ground situation including the number of employees fulfilling the eligibility criteria also changed. After examining the entire facts and circumstances discussion of the case, and taking a holistic view of the matter, it was noticed that the implementation of the present housing scheme at this stage is not viable in the public interest, for reasons, more than one, hence it has been decided by the competent authority that the scheme would be closed and the employees would be refunded their money by the Chandigarh Housing Board.”
In a meeting with Home Ministry officials in 2020, deliberations to resolve the issue regarding the rates of flats took part where it was decided that the calculation of rates would further be assessed considering various factors such as Floor Area Plan, collector rates, plot area and others in consultation with the representatives of petitioners. The employees were also assured that the project would not be abandoned and they would be getting the houses.
However, when the scheme was initiated the cost announced for Category A, B, C, and D was 34.70 lakhs, 24.30 lakhs, 13.53 lakhs, and 5.67 lakhs, respectively. However, due to the delay in the process, the cost has risen to 2.08 crore for category A, 1.64 crore for category B,1 crore for category C, and 50 lakh for category D.
Since the launch of the scheme 80 of the selected employees have passed away and more than 70 have retired. After 16 years the dream of having their home in the ‘City Beautiful’ is now being squished by the administration and has left hundreds of employees with disappointment and frustration.
With the housing scheme scrapped, the employees are now aggregated on how to secure affordable housing in cities like Chandigarh, where the cost of property has skyrocketed in previous years. This situation has led to outrage in various employee unions demanding transparency in the explanation of the cancellation and exploring alternative housing needs of their employees.
