Permanent housing for slumdwellers in offing

Permanent housing for slumdwellers in offing
The Financial Express, July 15, 2009, Page 2

Kakoly Chatterjee, New Delhi

The city’s slumdwellers could get permanent housing under a new scheme, the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), announced by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Budget 2009-10.

Though the fine prints of the new scheme are still being worked out by the housing ministry, officials said each dwelling unit under the scheme would be of the size of 25 sq mt and expected to cost around Rs 2,00,000 to Rs 2,50,000. The cost of the dwelling units would be shared by the central and state government alongwith the occupant.

While central government assistance will be in the range of 50% to 90% depending on which part of the country the project is located, the remaining would be shared by the state governments and the occupants.

According to Kaustav Basu, principal consultant, PA Consulting Group, “There should be a lock-in period of five to six years before the occupants can sell the property to discourage the trade in these dwelling units”.

Housing and poverty alleviation minister, Kumari Selja said that RAY is not only going to deal with existing issues but also future issues relating to the grwoth of slums in the cities.

“Inclusive growth is not possible until we have inclusive cities for which inclusive zoning is required. Existing planning model which is exclusionary needs to be modified with inclusive planning,” Selja said.

According to housing ministry, the concept paper for RAY is ready and has been sent to state chief ministers. By mid-July Kumari Selja is expected to confer with technical advisors and members of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), eminent NGOs, industry associations to finalise on the fineprints of the scheme.

The main highlight of RAY is that the scheme would focus on according property rights to slum dwellers. The legal framework is being worked for this. An extensive slum survey to find out the number of families and where they are dwelling needs to be completed before RAY is implemented.

Housing ministry has received a 50% hike in funds to Rs 3,765 crore for funding the two JNNURM schemes that the ministry runs. For basic services to the urban poor (BSUP) housing ministry has received Rs 2,505 crore. Funds allocated for integrated housing and slum development programme (IHSDP) is Rs 1,110 crore and a token amount of Rs 150 crore has been allocated for RAY.