New accommodation policy for employees on the cards

Current accommodations not sufficient to meet requirements of federal employees


Haseeb Hanif November 12, 2021
FGEHA Logo. PHOTO: Twitter

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government is mulling over a new policy to provide housing facilities to federal government employees.

Under the proposed policy, a certain amount will be deducted from the salary of a government employee from the time of joining for the provision of housing facilities.

Under the deducted sum, every employee will have the housing facility from the government till retirement.

Sources said that a committee has been formed by the federal government to review the current accommodation policy and come up with a suggestion to provide housing facilities to every federal government employee during the time of service.

Currently, federal employees get membership of the Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) to get plots.

A large number of federal government employees, who are members of the FGEHA, have not been able to get plots despite the payment of the upfront fee and down payments.

The federal government employees have serious concerns about the housing authority, which collects down payments and upfront money from federal government employees for projects, but they seldom see the light of the day in years.

The sources said that before starting a project, the FGEHA usually gets approval from the housing ministry and the federal cabinet and once the approval is granted, its office-bearers drag on with schemes despite collecting down payments and upfront money from the employees.

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On the other hand, the government is also facing difficulties in providing plots or housing facilities to federal employees as per the existing policy of the housing authority. However, the sources said that a proposal is under consideration by a committee comprising the Ministry of Housing, the Establishment Division and

The Ministry of Finance to review the current accommodation policy and to ensure the provision of housing facilities to every federal employee in the future.

For this purpose, a certain amount will be deducted from every government employee after their joining of the service to provide housing facilities to them, the sources said.

The committee will review the current policy, its implementation and its financial impact and how the policy could be implemented effectively. The sources said that the committee has started to work on it. The committee will submit its recommendations to the cabinet for a final decision.

The sources said that currently, the government accommodations were not sufficient to meet the requirements of the employees in the federal capital

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2021.

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