A high-level review meeting of the “Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar” and “Apni Zameen, Apna Ghar” housing programmes was held under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, in which the progress of ongoing projects for low-income and homeless families, financial assistance and future strategies were discussed in detail.
The meeting decided that the “Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar” programme will be further expanded so that not only the construction of new houses but also the rehabilitation and expansion of dilapidated residences can be made possible. For this purpose, approval has been given to introduce a new facility, under which a proposal has been made to provide financial assistance of up to Rs 500,000 to deserving families for the repair of weak or dilapidated houses.
The meeting also agreed that citizens who want to build a new floor or additional floor on their existing house will be provided with interest-free loans of up to one million rupees in easy instalments. According to officials, the aim of this initiative is to increase the housing capacity and provide better housing facilities to families with limited resources.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, while addressing the meeting, said that the criterion for the success of public welfare projects is not announcements but their effective and timely implementation. She directed that the procedure for obtaining loans should be made more simple, transparent and people-friendly so that the deserving people do not have to face unnecessary complications or additional financial pressure.
According to the briefing presented in the meeting, more than one lakh residential units have been completed so far under the “Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar” programme, while interest-free loans were approved for more than one hundred eighty thousand homeless families. Officials said that more than 170,000 of these families have been disbursed loans, while a total of Rs 217.8 billion has been spent on the project.
The briefing further stated that 134,343 houses have been completed across Punjab, while more than 27,000 houses are in the final stages of completion. According to officials, so far more than 1.278 million families have submitted applications to benefit from this programme, which reflects public interest in the project.
The progress of the “Apni Zameen, Apna Ghar” programme was also reviewed during the meeting. According to the briefing, in the first phase, two thousand free residential plots have been provided to deserving families in 23 districts of Punjab. The Chief Minister directed that the citizens who have been given plots should also be provided with interest-free loans for the construction of houses so that they can establish their permanent residence as soon as possible.
At the end of the meeting, the Punjab Chief Minister made it clear that transparency, speed and public convenience in housing projects will remain the top priority of the government. He directed the concerned institutions that no negligence or delay will be tolerated in the implementation of the projects, and the focus of all measures should be to provide decent housing to the common citizen.