The Hindu 15.11.2010
Slum-dwellers will soon have a hard roof over their heads
S. Rajendran
|
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.
