Only those huts, built prior to January 1, 2010, would be covered under the Kalaignar Veetu Vasathi Thittam (KVVT - Kalaignar Housing Scheme), M.K. Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister, informed the House on Friday.
The Scheme envisages the conversion of huts with thatched roofs into permanent concrete houses over six years, starting from 2010-2011. As per the 2001 Census, about 33 per cent of rural houses were huts in the State.
Moving the demands for grants to Municipal Administration and Rural Development department, Mr. Stalin said huts built after January 1 would be considered only at the end of the six-year period. As in the case of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), the houses under the scheme would be provided with RCC (reinforced cement concrete) roof and separate toilets. The minimum stipulated area of the house would be 200 sq. ft. and the unit cost of each house would be Rs. 60,000. The houses would be built by the beneficiaries themselves or their agents. No tenders would be invited.
Village Administrative Officers, Makkal Nala Paniyalars and Village Panchayat Assistants would form part of the teams that would carry out the enumeration of the huts. The scheme would be implemented simultaneously in all the 12,618 village panchayats across the State. The permanent houses would be allocated among various communities (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Most Backward Classes, Backward Classes and Other Communities) in proportion to the total number of huts of the beneficiaries of each community in the village panchayat, as revealed in the enumeration survey.
The Deputy Chief Minister also made it clear that among the types of huts that would not be eligible were huts occupied by tenants, those used for commercial purposes or animals, huts whose occupants owned pucca houses elsewhere and huts owned by retired or serving government staff including those who were on contract or daily wage appointment.
IAY houses
This year, about 1.02 lakh IAY houses would be built at an outlay of around Rs. 617 crore including the State government?s contribution towards the RCC roofing cost (apart from the State government?s matching share for this scheme, sponsored by the Central government).
Mr. Stalin also informed the House that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, in a communication to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September, expressed reservations over the Centre?s proposal of abolishing District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) and entrust District Panchayats with the DRDAs? responsibility of implementing various Centrally-sponsored schemes.
A target of Rs. 3,000 crore had been fixed for providing credit linkage to women self-help groups under the Mahalir Thittam.
