East leads State in construction of pucca earthquake-resilient houses

EAST DIST ADMN PRESENTS UPDATE ON CMRHM, REDRH AND CEDH-CMRF schemes
SAGAR CHHETRI
GANGTOK, 11 Jan: East District administration has been working on a war-footing to complete all houses sanctioned under the Chief Minister’s Rural Housing Mission [CMRHM], Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Rural Houses [REDRH] and Construction of Earthquake Damaged Houses under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund [CEDH-CMRF] by the end of 2013 financial year. The East district has also been leading the state in the completion and handing over of houses under CMRHM and REDRH schemes.
Addressing a press conference today, District Collector [East], D Anandan, informed that the East district has received a significant achievement in CMRHM by completing 544 houses out of the 1,887 sanctioned so far. Out of these 544 houses handed over to beneficiaries, 325 fall under Model-A, 36 under Model-B and 183 under Model-C. He further mentioned that the remaining houses are also in various stages of construction and scheduled to be completed at the earliest.
The DC informed that the CMRHM scheme was envisioned by the Chief Minister as an initiative to make Sikkim a Kutcha House Free State. Under this scheme, 1,887 beneficiaries were identified from 10 blocks in East Sikkim.
Speaking on REDRH, the DC informed that construction under this scheme was also making good progress. He informed that out of 2,596 houses to be constructed under this scheme, allotment orders have already been issued to 1,385 beneficiaries so far. He mentioned that the respective BDO’s have been directed to work on these schemes in earnest and complete these houses at the earliest.
He informed that East district is the first in the State to complete a house under REDRH – at Khamdong, which has already been handed over to the beneficiary. He further informed that 2 houses each in Pakyong and Parakha blocks have also since been completed and scheduled to be handed over to the beneficiaries soon.
The DC informed that many houses in the urban areas also sustained complete damage and several houses in the rural areas fall under the major damaged category not suitable for habitation any more, so for these houses, a new scheme the CEDH-CMRF was launched this year.
A total of 58 beneficiaries were identified by Land Revenue Department in the State under this scheme.  21 of these beneficiaries are in East Sikkim. In East District, Gangtok block has 12 beneficiaries, 1 each in Khamdong, Rakdong-Tintek and Rhenock, 2 in Duga and 4 in Regu block.
The Land Revenue Department has provided the amount through support from CM’s Relief Fund wherein a total of Rs 2,78,40,000 has been sanctioned for the scheme and the unit cost of the house is Rs 4.8 lakh.
The DC informed that the construction of the houses will have the same earthquake resistant design and estimate of REDRH and the implementation mechanism will be owner-driven as is being practiced in CMRHM. The administration has targeted to issue allotment orders to all these 21 beneficiaries by the end of this month and the construction is likely to be started from February.
Zilla Adhyaksha [East], Bimal Dawadi, in turn stated that the East district has been moving ahead by working hard in the completion of the houses in the CMRHM to hand over to beneficiaries in earliest. He also congratulated the officials and staffs of the district administration for working hard to achieve the target in the earliest.
Zilla Upadhyaksha [East], Kalpana Moktan also urged people today to come forward to help beneficiaries in their respective areas in constructing their houses under the various schemes and stressed that the government has been providing everything to the people and now it’s also the duty of the society to extend their support in such scheme.