Govt mulls houses for poor

In a bid to provide houses to poor, government is now mulling to make ‘adequate housing reservation policy’ under which the people from Low Income Group (LIG) and Economic Weaker Sections (EWS) will also own cheaper houses at affordable prices in all public and private housing projects.

For formulating this policy, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja Monday reportedly communicated to Chief Ministers of all states through letters, suggesting to earmark adequate housing lands for constructing flats and houses for poor class society in each and every housing projects whether public or private.

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Government is considering to introduce norm seeking 20% mandatory space reserved for poor in all housing projects, including private housing project. Pulling the legs of private developers, Selja said, the private developers always think about thick ‘profit’ and in this view they develop their projects for medium and elite class societies and overlook a large portion of low income group section, but after implementing this norm, it would be mandatory for them to essentially develop 20 flats for reserved society.

This new policy would be a part of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), for which government has targeted to meet 10-lakh low-income group houses with the estimated cost of Rs.50,000-crore, while according to official reports, with the beginning of 11th five year plan, there were as many as 24.5-million houses required for low income family but at present only 50,000 houses and flats are ready and about 3,00,000 houses are under construction.

To fill the big gap of ‘demand and supply’, the participation of private partnership is essential.

Some big cities, including Delhi, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Pune, Bangalore, Indore and Lucknow, are in principle ready to follow the policy, housing ministry official reported.