Members of Parlimamentary Consultative Committees of the Ministries of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation have identified land availability as one of the major challenges to achieving the goal of ‘Housing for All by 2022.
They have also voiced concern at the “steadily declining housing loans to weaker sections from public sector banks and housing finance corporations even as total lending to housing sector has increased over the years,” said a Public Information Bureau (PIB) posting.
The MPs appealed to the Union government to continue supporting housing schemes sanctioned under the previous governments and which remained incomplete while addressing issues such as selection of beneficiaries for the schemes and granting clearances to construction projects. These issues have to be addressed by the States and urban local bodies, they said.
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The members of the consultative committees said that granting infrastructure status to housing sector “would help in meeting the credit needs” of the economically weaker and low-income groups.
Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu assured the MPs that housing projects sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission would be financially supported till the end of March 2017.
The housing projects under the erstwhile Rajiv Awas Yojana have been “subsumed in the Housing for All scheme, the PIB statement added.
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It is estimated that two crore houses have to be built for the urban areas by 2022, involving an estimated expenditure of Rs.3 lakh crore.
Urban component
The urban component of the ambitious housing mission comprises slum redevelopment, affordable housing through credit-linked subsidy, affordable housing in partnership with private or public sector agencies, and beneficiary-led individual house construction.
The Union Ministry envisages leveraging the land for urban slum redevelopment; liberalisation of norms for foreign direct investment in the housing sector; streamlining clearances for construction projects; and assistance to beneficiaries who belong to the economically weaker sections and low-income groups, enabling urban local bodies to issue municipal bonds.