THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government will prepare a comprehensive housing project for the homeless in the state.
This was announced by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who chaired a meeting of district collectors and heads of various government departments here on Thursday.Chandy said the issues of prime importance in the state were providing housing for the homeless and improving the state’s healthcare sector. Stating that close to one lakh houses in the state were on the verge of collapse, the chief minister said that such houses should be rebuilt.Seeking the co-operation of district collectors in the successful implementation of the programme, the chief minister said that the blueprint of various housing projects proposed by the government would be handed over to the district collectors.Chandy said that priority would be given to those complaints which had been raised in the chief minister’s mass contact programme.
Chandy stated that urgent remedy should be found to the issue of title deeds in the state. The distribution of title deeds should be hastened by easing the formalities, he said.
The state government had undertaken field verification of ecologically-sensitive areas on the basis of the Kasturirangan report and that has been approved by the Centre, Chandy said. He added that it had made identifying forest and non-forest land easier.He directed the district collectors to ensure that the distribution of title deeds to fishermen families should be completed in a time-bound manner. The state government had asked the Centre to exempt houses with a built area of over 100 sq m to be exempted from the Coastal Regulation Zone Act. A notification to that effect will be issued soon.
Appraisal of Civil Servants Mooted
Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson told the civil servants that the government was planning to implement a proposal by the Centre recommending departmental action against those civil servants who have 15 years of service but have not shown any improvement in performance.