Srinagar, Mar 28: While more than half the population in Jammu and Kashmir spend their lives in poor housing conditions, above three lakh houses worth Rs 90000 crore of investment are lying vacant.
The phenomenon of vacant houses is severe in urban Jammu and Kashmir like cities and towns.  The data about households and housing amenities in JK was released by authorities of Census Department at a press conference here Wednesday.
Joint Chief Principal Census Officer JK, CS Sapru, said that according to 2011 census Jammu and Kashmir has 36,03,632 houses out of which 32,99,219 are occupied and another 3,04413 houses are lying vacant.
The increase in the number of households has been 8,35,080 during last decade, Sapru said.
At least 64,410 of the vacant houses have got added during last decade taking the previous figure of 2,40,003 to above 3.04 lakh. “The vacant houses equals to investment of around Rs 90000 crore,” said a senior official. “It is dead investment which neither benefits the owners nor the state.”
In rural JK, the addition in the number of vacant houses has been “negligible” 16000. “The problem lies in urban J&K like Srinagar, Jammu and different towns which have added more than 47000 vacant houses,” officials said.
Compare it with the housing facility to poor people in JK. Of 20,15,088 households (with dwelling rooms) enumerated in JK, around 6.80 lakh households are of poor type. These include 70,047 houses of “no exclusive room” implying that the families live, cook, eat, sleep in a single room.
Another 4,48,767 households belong to one room type and another 5,55,267 households belong to two room type. “People living in these three types of households belong to poor category who cannot afford to have a well off home,” an official said.
Another 7.80 lakh households belong to three rooms,four rooms, and five rooms category, the data reveals.
In tourism sector, the growth has been “dismal.” While JK last year received a record 20 lakh tourists it has only 7473 lodging facilities. “It is too less for a state which has a vast tourism potential,” said an official. “It means tourists have to pay more to get accommodation facility, forcing them to look for alternative tourist destination like neighboring Himachal Pradesh.”
The growth of infrastructure in the health sector has not been up to the expectations during last decade. For 1.25 crore population, state has only 6278 hospitals/dispensaries. “For every 1998 people there is one hospital/dispensary,” official said. “It is dismal position of health sector.”
The growth in the education sector has been satisfactory. The number of educational institutions has grown from 12455 in 2001 to 31843 in 2011. It is almost 65 percent growth of institutions.
There has been “significant” growth in places of worship in the state. From 32025 worship places like mosques, temples, gurudwaras and churches in 2001, the number has grown up to 49135 in 2011, implying the growth in number of worshippers. “It is more than 53 percent growth,” the official said.
Greater Kashmir last week reported that more than half the population of Jammu and Kashmir continues to remain vulnerable to water borne diseases, according to the census report.
Only 34.7 percent of state population gets tap water at home from treated sources while 29 percent people have tap water facility available through untreated sources and the remaining population rely on sources like wells, hand pumps, tube wells, springs, ponds and lakes. Of 20.15 lakhs households in JK, only 64 percent get tap water at home.
The census in Jammu and Kashmir was undertaken in 2010-11 along with other states. The House listing and Housing Census was started during first phase followed by population enumeration.
While more than 15 percent of population continues to live their life in dark in absence of electricity facility, around 85.1 percent households have power facility for lighting their houses. About 13 percent households use primitive sources of light including kerosene lamps. Shockingly, two percent of people have no source of lighting at their homes.
People in JK still rely on traditional means of cooking using firewood, cow dung cakes and crop residue. While 59 percent families use firewood to cook food and 7 percent families use the other two means for cooking.
About half of the state households do not have latrine facility at home. Of the total households, 46.1 households defecate in open while 2.7 percent use public latrines.
Last year the Census department released the population figures in JK which has grown up to more than 1.25 crore. The share of Kashmir Valley in population is more than 70 lakh.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST