Shah launches CAPF eAwas portal; says housing satisfaction to go up to 74 PC by 2024

New Delhi [India], September 1 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday launched an online portal for the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel with the aim to increase their chances of finding government accommodation as it would widen the available pool of homes for them.
The Union Home Minister asserted that the housing satisfaction ratio for CAPFs personnel will be enhanced to about 74 per cent by late 2024.
Shah has launched the 'eAwas' portal saying that the government has been able to enhance the housing satisfaction for the troops of the CAPF by 13 per cent.
The Home Ministry started working on the subject as soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge in 2014 and he has repeatedly said that it is the responsibility of the elected government of the day to take care of the families of the jawans who guard the frontiers of the country and render other internal security duties round-the-clock, Shah said.
The new portal will allow CAPF personnel to find houses among themselves rather than just looking for accommodation within the force.

"I am told that in many places the houses are vacant, and with this new facility we will see the housing satisfaction ratio for the personnel going up by 13 per cent," he said.
Border Security Force (BSF) Director General (DG) Pankaj Kumar Singh, who spoke before the Minister to give an overview of the new facility, said, "as per the current data about 19 per cent of houses are vacant in CAPFs and through this portal, the jawan of one force can seek a house available with the other force."
Apart from the Assam Rifles, the CAPFs comprise the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
These forces have a combined strength of over 10 lakh and they are deployed across the length and breadth of the country to render a variety of internal security tasks while being posted in very harsh climate regions and high-risk areas.
Shah further said when the BJP government took charge in 2014, the housing satisfaction ratio for CAPFs was about 33-34 per cent which is now 48 per cent, he said.
Citing the official data, he said that the Home Ministry constructed about 31,000 houses over the last eight years, and around 17,000 are currently under construction while another 15,000 have been proposed to be built.
"By November 2024, we will increase the housing satisfaction ratio for CAPFs by up to 60 per cent and if we take into account those available in the common pool of the forces, we can add another 13 per cent and this ratio would then be about 73-74 per cent," Shah said.
Our target is to take this ratio up to 74 per cent by that time (2024), he said.
Shah said that the PM Modi-led government has initiated a number of welfare measures for the CAPFs personnel who are very vital for the economic progress of India and thus is emerging as a manufacturing hub of the world.
"We have distributed about 35 lakh Aayushman health cards to the jawans and their families till now. I was told about some "teething problems" in this scheme but that has been resolved now," the Home Minister said.
The government is also preparing software that will conduct transfers and postings in CAPFs over an online medium and will also enable jawans to stay closer to their home and family, he said.
"In the e-transfer software, we aim to link the health condition, age and other vital parameters of the jawans so that it can be more useful," the Minister added.
The government has also enhanced the PM scholarship for the wards of the CAPF jawans, adding about 80 new courses to this bucket even as the air courier service for transportation of troops in high-risk areas has been strengthened, he said.
The Minister directed the CAPF director generals to ensure that systems are put in place so that mega plantation drives undertaken by these forces bear a good result by motivating the jawans to form a special bond with the saplings planted by them.