more-in Creating a State without the homeless is one of the major objectives of the State government, Minister for Local Self-Government K.T. Jaleel has said. He was speaking at a meeting to review the progress of project implementation by local bodies in the district in the first quarter of the fiscal. Among the local bodies, Parakkadavu block panchayat (26%), North Paravur municipality (22.76%) and Vadakkekara grama panchayat (27.25%) surged ahead in the first three months of project implementation. District panchayat managed 6.77% and the Corporation 11.99% during the same period. The government aimed at constructing two-and-a-half lakh new houses under the second phase of the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) Mission. Homeless people with land were being given ?4 lakh under the project. Out of this, ?1.50 lakh was the Central share and the remaining ?2.50 lakh was the State government’s share. The Minister urged local body heads to ensure that all eligible beneficiaries were included in the project. The concept of spill over was being removed from the local body department and measures were under way to include such projects in the next year’s priority list. The meeting observed that the lack of adequate engineers hampered the progress of construction projects in local bodies. Several engineers were entrusted with the charge of multiple local bodies. Creation of new vacancies was the only solution to this problem. Mr. Jaleel said that a meeting will be convened within three months to find a permanent solution to the problems in the engineering wing. Very often projects, which had received administrative sanction, got delayed owing to the delay in getting technical sanction. Mr. Jaleel hailed the district for its performance in project implementation. Chairpersons and secretaries of local bodies, which registered 100% project implementation, received awards from the Minister.

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