More than 600 families in the city Corporation have bought land under the Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) housing project of the Left Democratic Front government.
Considering the number of files under processing, close to 1,000 families will get funds for buying land under the project by the end of the financial year, according to officials handling the LIFE project at the civic body.
The funds for land purchase are provided from the plan fund of the respective local body, while the LIFE mission provides funds for the construction of houses.
The State government had last year increased the funds for the land purchase scheme. Under the scheme, a family from the general category living in a municipal Corporation area will get ₹5.25 lakh to purchase a maximum of 3 cents of land, compared to the ₹2.5 lakh provided at the beginning of the scheme in 2016.
Beneficiaries from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories will get ₹6 lakh, compared to the ₹2.5 lakh provided earlier.
Three per ward
“Although we are receiving a lot of applications, we have limited it to three applications per ward per year. The beneficiary has to identify the land and submit the application at the Corporation. An overseer from the respective ward will visit the site and check whether it is suitable for house construction,” says an official.
The beneficiary families who purchase land under the LIFE scheme will be considered for the housing project under PMAY-LIFE in the next phase. The State government has now given a call for the next phase of applications for the housing project that can be submitted online to the respective local body from August 1 to 14. “This will be the first time that the entire process will be online. Beneficiaries can either approach Akshaya centres or the help desk set up at the Corporation if they do not have internet access,” says the official.
