According to a news report (BR, December 9, 2005), House Building Finance Corporation is planning to open 100 more branches next year, in addition to their planned 50 representative offices. All these are said to be done to reach the lower income people in the far-flung areas.
The plan is indeed very good, although I cannot say if it is also politically correct or not. But if it is practical and beneficial to the lower and medium income group is to be seen, and should be established by the authority.
What to say at the poor and middle class of the country, the present schemes of financing of the HBFC are not even affordable for the higher income group of the country. The financial charges on loans taken from HBFC also exorbitantly high, and these are said to be because of the Islamic (?) system adopted by the Corporation.
Instead of day-dreaming and making high-flying plans to reach every nook of the country, the Corporation should take immediate steps to make its financing really affordable for the prospective borrowers. It has so far miserably failed to do so to the chagrin of the majority of people desirous of having houses of their own.
The corporation should also realise that the housing problem is generally an urban problem, and not a rural one. So, it should better concentrate in the urban and sub-urban areas, and extend its helping hand to the people of these areas.
The corporation would also do an eternally good service to the nation if it uses its good offices to pursue the government to modernise the land records of the country, which at present is not even comprehensible to even a knowledgeable person. The present land record is said to be following the system introduced during the reign of Shershah Suri, or earlier.
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