Centre told to provide funds for "Housing for All" scheme

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee has recommended that the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) department should strive hard to finalise the details of the new scheme Housing for All at the earliest and provide necessary funds to states at the earliest by July 2015.

The Standing Committee on Urban Development Ministry headed by BJD MP Pinaki Mishra also asked the Ministry to share the details of the schemes with state governments.

Ministry should indicate to state governments to design and finalise their schemes well in advance of the release of funds so that the schemes take of immediately, it suggested in its report submitted in parliament today.

The committee has also said that states should be asked to put in place the requisite dedicated technical experts in implement the scheme efficiently in a time-bound manner.

The proposed umbrella scheme of Housing for all by 2022 in 7 years will replace all the schemes being implemented in the 12th five-year plan to address various aspects of housing for the urban poor and will be implemented from the year 2015-16.

Government has allocated Rs 4000 crore in 2015-16 for the scheme. Therefore, it is imperative to mobilise all stakeholders including state governments, urban local bodies, banks, private sector, industry, civil society.

The committee has observed that the experience so far in implementing the old scheme by the states has not been upto the mark which has resulted in huge underutilisation without benefiting the target groups.

According to the estimate housing stock required in the next 10 years is 60 million. The required additional annual housing is 3.4 million, while the current annual supply is 2.4 million. Thus the annual deficit in housing stock creation is 1 million.