I am not in the mood to write a laudatory column, so I have always avoided praising the rulers, but when someone does a good deed, a good word or a good decision, it is also unfair not to appreciate it. Thinking this, today’s lines are being penned down that a decision by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has come out which is very timely. So timely that she had also made a formal suggestion in this regard in her column last week.
You may remember that a few days ago, an incident occurred in Kahna area of Lahore when the roof of a tuition center collapsed. Fourteen children died in this incident and many were injured. Last week, a column titled “Hasrat An Ghanch Pe Hai” was written on this incident, in which she requested the government to provide loans on easy installments to people to pave their roofs. An excerpt from this column is also provided.
“Doesn’t a fruit seller save enough from his business to cover his household expenses while fruits are already sold at such high prices in the market that we often hear that shopkeepers have started selling fruits at arbitrary prices. If even by selling fruits at arbitrary prices, a laborer’s household expenses cannot be covered and even by adding his wife’s tuition income, he cannot save enough to put a solid roof on his house, then it is the government’s job to think about why this is so and what is the solution. Why is it becoming difficult for people to build and run their own homes with the earnings of their hard work and effort? The sorrow of the death of fourteen children is in its place, but it is also a source of sorrow that our media continues to write this poor laborer as an “accused” even though he had not committed any crime for which he could be accused. First, his house collapsed, secondly, his wife and daughter were also injured, and on top of that, the accused is the same? He had tried to improve his roof by putting tiles on it, did he take someone’s life? Who wouldn’t want the roof of his house to collapse and many human lives including his own family to be trapped under it and be in danger or perish? Perhaps this is also the job of the governments that when a person builds a house, they should be provided with easy installment loans to build a solid house, which should also be easy to obtain, so that there is no risk of losing precious human lives due to roof collapse.”
It was not expected that this demand would become a reality so soon. The column was published last Saturday and today is still a Saturday. Thus, only eight days have passed since this article was written, while exactly five days after writing the column, the heartwarming news was heard on Wednesday that Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sahiba has taken the final decision to start the “Apna Ghar, Mahfooz Ghar” program after the Kahna incident. The news also said that the scope of the Apna Chhat, Apna Ghar program has been further expanded. Two new categories have been introduced under Apna Ghar Mahfooz Ghar. Under the Safe House scheme, Rs 500,000 will be provided for renovation of dilapidated houses with weak roofs, while Rs 1 million will be provided in interest-free easy installments for constructing a new building story or additional floor. The Chief Minister said that the Punjab government will help those whose houses are dilapidated or have weak roofs to make them safe and better. Apni Chhat Apni Ghar and all its related programs are the flagship project of the Punjab government, negligence will not be tolerated. Maryam Nawaz also directed the concerned authorities not to put any burden on the poor and not to change the rules for obtaining loans.
The decision of the Punjab Chief Minister to provide loans to strengthen the roofs of houses with dilapidated roofs is too little to be appreciated. The truth is that at this time the greatest need is to improve such houses because there are countless houses in our vicinity whose roofs are not firm and there is always a risk of their collapse, but people are living in these houses because they have no other option. They neither have enough money to make their roof firm nor can they borrow such a large amount from anyone at once to put a firm roof. The result is that every year during the rainy season we get to hear and read such heartbreaking news that the roof of the house collapsed due to heavy rain, many people died and many were injured.
Helping people to make the dilapidated roofs firm should be the first priority of the government and the Chief Minister of Punjab has felt this responsibility intensely. That is why it has been decided to issue easy loans to make the dilapidated roofs firm. Such decisions should have been taken long ago, but the time has come. Rather, a comprehensive survey should be conducted and it should be seen which house has a dilapidated roof. The owners of such houses should go and give loans themselves without asking so that they can immediately fix their roofs, but this may not be possible. Therefore, it is requested in this regard that whoever contacts for this type of loan, the loan should be issued immediately without any red tape and lengthy investigation, only after inspecting the roof, so that more precious lives can be saved.
