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The members of the UPHDB will go on strike on January 24, while the UP engineers’ association (UPEA) has written to the state PWD and Housing minister not to enforce speedy completion of the scheme.
The work order for this scheme, under which free houses will be given to the poor, was issued in July 2008. The project envisages construction of about 1.01 lakh houses in 71 districts. The houses in 51 districts are to be constructed by the housing board, local development authorities are to execute the task in the remaining districts.
During an inspection last week, the officials found that the progress in the project was not satisfactory in some districts. Taking a serious note of this, the authorities suspended seven engineers. The suspended engineers included two executive engineers, one assistant engineer and four junior engineers from Farrukabad, Gorakhpur, Hamirpur, Mirzapur, Sant Kabeer Nagar, Balrampur and Meerut. The engineers’ associations have blamed the district administration for the delay.
“As per the standards of the PWD schedule, a minimum of 10 months are required for construction of a single-storeyed masonry building, three months for its electrification and three additional months for internal water supply and sanitation installation,” said UPEA general secretary A Farooqui.
The project includes three-storeyed buildings, which require minimum 18 months for their construction only. “But the government has set a deadline of March 2009 for completing the project which was not practical,” he said. The UPHDB’s general secretary Gyaneshwar Prasad said, “The land was provided by the district authorities very late and then later the process of approving the tenders for the works was delayed.” He said the engineers have been suspended for no fault. Prasad said that UPHDB engineers will be on strike on January 24 against the engineers’ suspension.
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