The Hindu 15.11.2010
Slum-dwellers will soon have a hard roof over their heads
| State will benefit from housing programme to be taken up by the Centre |
For a better living:In congested areas in Bangalore where land is scarce, slum-dwellers
Bangalore: Karnataka is expected to be one of the first beneficiaries of a major subsidised housing programme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana' for the benefit of the urban poor to be taken up by the Union Government.
Bangalore with 577 slums and with a population of nearly 10 lakh living there will stand to be the biggest beneficiary.
To begin with, people residing in a total of 3.05 lakh dingy structures or thatched huts in the slums of all the nine corporations in the State, including that of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, will be provided with reinforced concrete housing. The Centre will provide an interest subsidy of 5 per cent while the beneficiary will have to pay the balance of 3 per cent. The Government has tied up with banks for the housing loan (at an interest rate of 8 per cent) which will also be repaid by the beneficiaries over an extended period.
Review of preparations
A high-level committee, headed by the Secretary, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kiran Dhingra which was in Bangalore recently to conduct a review of the preparations for the implementation of the massive housing scheme for slum-dwellers, has appreciated the ground work done and has promised that funds would be made over to the State at the earliest. The housing scheme, in the first phase, will be implemented in the districts of Gulbarga, Shimoga, Bellary, Mysore, Mangalore, Davangere, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Tumkur and Bangalore.
In some of the congested areas, particularly in Bangalore where land is scarce, the slum-dwellers will be provided flats in multi-storeyed apartments.
Under the self-financing housing scheme, the Union Government will provide an interest subsidy of 5 per cent to the beneficiaries while the State Government has been vested with the responsibility of providing the requisite land for the housing programme apart from tying up with the nationalised banks for the housing loans.
Added to this, the State Government will also provide drinking water and electricity connections to the houses, and the water and electricity rates to such households will also be subsidised.
Sources in the State Government told The Hindu that a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary S.V. Ranganath, after taking note of the difficulties that slum-dwellers would experience in obtaining housing loans, decided to involve the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board and other government agencies in undertaking the massive construction of houses for the poor.
Under the scheme, the government agencies would obtain loans from financial institutions and thereafter sell the flats to the beneficiaries with an inbuilt subsidy provided by the Centre and the State Government.
The State Government has constituted a high-level committee, under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Subhir Hari Singh, to oversee the implementation of the programme.
It is said, as part of urban development initiatives undertaken by the Centre, that all States were directed to undertake a comprehensive survey of the urban poor and thereafter submit a report to the Centre.
Karnataka, which commenced this exercise about a year ago, extensively utilised the services of the personnel of all corporations apart from that of the Directorate of Municipal Administration to complete the survey in a short span of time.
Apart from collecting information on the population residing in the nearly 1,125 slums in the nine corporations, the authorities have also collected information on their health status, their education, economic status etc.
The authorities have also conducted a GIS mapping of all the slums on scientific lines.
