The Hindu : Centre to raise subsidy for urban poor scheme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003

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Centre to raise subsidy for urban poor scheme

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 11. The Centre has, in a major initiative, proposed changes in the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana scheme, envisaging raising the Central subsidy from 50 per cent to 70 per cent, to enable the urban poor living below the poverty line to acquire a roof over their heads.

Disclosing this to the members of the parliamentary committee attached to his Ministry, the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Bandaru Dattatraya, said today that the Government also proposed to enlarge the scope of the scheme to extend its benefits to the urban poor living in slums, who fell in the category `above poverty line have-nots'.

These proposals, he said, were under the active consideration of the Government.

Once they were finally approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, his Ministry would incorporate the necessary changes in the scheme.

For effective implementation of the scheme, the Minister said State-level monitoring committees were also being set up. They would ensure that the funds provided by the Centre were actually utilised for the benefit of the urban poor.

Later talking to media persons, the Minister said a meeting of the State Urban Development Ministers would be convened to give a push to the Urban Reforms Agenda. A Central scheme was in place to provide assistance to the States, provided they went in for reforms.

A number of States, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana, had signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre to avail themselves of the benefits of the scheme.

Some more, including Jammu and Kashmir, had shown interest in entering into such MoUs.

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