Parekh panel to frame housing policy for poor

NEW DELHI: The government has set up a high-level task force headed by HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh to chart out a policy for providing affordable housing for the poor. The task force would primarily look at developing financial instruments for bringing flexibility to the housing market and suggest steps for enhancing supply of rental housing.

“We have asked the high-powered committee to recommend measures for promotion of low-cost building technologies and measures of cheap financing. The committee would also suggest legislative measures for accelerating the supply of housing units for the urban poor,” minister of state for urban housing and employment Ms Selja said. The report is set to come out in four months.

The committee includes Nasser Munjee, non-executive chairman of Development Credit Bank, DLF vice-president Rajeev Singh, National Housing Bank CMD S Sridhar and Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Amitabh Kundu as some of the members. The committee, if need be, would also suggest amendments to the National Housing and Habitat Policy that was cleared by the cabinet last year.

The other major areas that the committee would address are — examining the framework of regional planning and master planning in order to increase the supply of land; examining various fiscal and spatial incentives for increasing supply of houses to economically weaker sections and low-income families and assisting the ministry in devising an integrated strategy for in-situ slum upgradation.

Other than advising the ministry on initiatives aiming at achieving the UPA government’s goal of ‘affordable housing for all’, the committee would also focus on devising ways to increase the supply of middle income group housing. “Housing for economically weaker sections is our prime goal. We would also ask the committee to include MIG housing as well,” Ms Selja said.