Headlines
Cabinet approves 'Housing for all by 2022'
New Delhi, June 17
The union cabinet on
Wednesday approved the launch of 'Housing for All by 2022' programme,
aimed at rehabilitation of slum dwellers and promotion of affordable
housing for the economically weaker sections (EWS) through credit-linked
subsidy.
According to an official statement issued here, a
central grant of Rs.1 lakh per house, on an average, would be available
under the slum rehabilitation programme.
It said a state
government would have flexibility in deploying this slum rehabilitation
grant to any slum rehabilitation project taken for development using
land as a resource for providing houses to slum dwellers.
"Under
the credit-linked interest subsidy component, interest subsidy of 6.5
percent on housing loans availed up to a tenure of 15 years will be
provided to economic weaker sections/lower income group (EWS/LIG)
categories, wherein the subsidy pay-out on net present value (NPV) basis
would be about Rs.2.3 lakh per house for both categories," the
statement said.
It said the central assistance at the rate of
Rs.1.5 lakh per house for the EWS category will be provided under the
affordable housing in partnership and beneficiary-led individual house
construction or enhancement.
State governments or their
parastatals like housing boards can take up projects of affordable
housing to avail the central government grant, it added.
Addressing
a press conference after the cabinet meeting, Telecom Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad said housing for all would a centrally-sponsored scheme.
"The
scheme will be implemented as a centrally-sponsored scheme except the
credit linked subsidy component, which will be implemented as a central
sector scheme," he said.
"The mission also prescribes certain
mandatory reforms for easing up the urban land market for housing, to
make adequate urban land available for affordable housing.
"Houses
constructed under the mission would be allotted in the name of the
female head of the households or in the joint name of the male head of
the household and his wife," he added.
The scheme will cover the
entire urban area consisting of 4,041 statutory towns with initial
focus on 500 class I cities and it will be implemented in three phases
as follows - Phase-I (April 2015 - March 2017) to cover 100 cities to be
selected from states/UTs as per their willingness; Phase - IIA (April
2017 - March 2019) to cover additional 200 cities and Phase-III (April
2019 - March 2022) to cover all other remaining cities.
The dimension of the task at present is estimated at two crore houses.
The
exact number of houses, though, would depend on the demand survey for
which all states/cities would undertake detailed demand assessment for
assessing actual demand by integrating Aadhar number, Jan Dhan Yojana
account numbers or any such identification of intended beneficiaries.
A
technology sub-mission under the scheme would also be set up to
facilitate adoption of modern, innovative and green technologies and
building material for faster and quality construction of houses.
The
technology sub-mission would also facilitate preparation and adoption
of layout designs and building plans suitable for various geo-climatic
zones.