The tall and fancy claims made for Ashiana Housing Scheme, the low cost housing project meant for people earning less than PKR 20,000 per month, have been exposed, reported news sources on February 19, 2015. Despite the dozens of promises made by the authorities concerned for making Ashiana Housing Scheme Attari Saroba a heaven for low income groups, the project turned out to be just another gimmick.
The residents of Ashiana Housing Scheme Attari Saroba are the witness and victim of the project that wasn’t just allotted to the deserving people through “transparent” balloting but was to offer them a high quality lifestyle coupled with amenities that only posh localities offered. Ironically, the reality is far from it; people living there don’t have the basic facilities, let alone enjoy the luxuries.
The cheap and low quality material used for the construction of these houses is also showing cracks in walls, ceilings and rooftops, causing water seepage. Unlike how the project was promoted to become a state of the art housing scheme for low income families of Punjab, the place is actually becoming a slum where garbage heaps and stagnant water because of the ineffective sewerage system is painting a totally different picture.
Since the project is lacking a boundary wall, the rising incidents of robbery and theft are adding to the problems of people living there. For these people, the CM is their last hope and they seek his attention to get their problems fixed. For making any welfare project effective, continuous monitoring is vital. Ashiana Housing Scheme, which is believed by many as the most commendable step taken by the Government of Punjab to attend to the housing needs of poor people, is doing without any of it.
It is also very sad that despite being a public project initiated in the very supervision of CM Punjab, Ashiana Housing Scheme Attari Saroba has no gas. So, the government owned housing project that was to become an icon of the present government’s commitment to make the people of Punjab better off, is quickly turning into a slum. Looks like, we need the CM once again to settle things down, even if it is just for the time being.
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