Former union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has condemned UT administration’s decision to cancel the UT employees’ housing scheme.

Bansal highlighted that over 16 years after launching the Self-Financing Employee Housing Scheme for its employees in 2008, the UT administration has shelved the project due to spike in land costs, shattering the hopes of over 4,000 employees, many of whom even died waiting for a flat.

These individuals, bound by the scheme’s conditions preventing them from building other homes, are now left in rented accommodations indefinitely due to the BJP’s decision.

Taking on the BJP, Bansal said it is a display of hypocrisy, stating that this move proves that the promises made in the BJP manifesto are merely words on paper, designed solely to secure votes. Bansal pointed out the irony of the BJP’s actions, likening it to the shelving of other welfare schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. He emphasised that the BJP’s priorities do not lie in serving the public’s interests and vowed that the Congress party would make this issue a focal point in the upcoming elections. Bansal assured the people of Chandigarh that if Congress were to come into power, they would address and resolve this matter promptly.