Housing For All: States queue up for PM Narendra Modi's project

NEW DELHI: Within three months of launch of Housing For All scheme, a key poll promise of PM Narendra Modi, states are queuing up to tap into the funds for slum redevelopment.

As many as 18 states have expressed eagerness to sign pacts with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, the nodal ministry for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. These states are: Andhra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, UP, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, WB, Himachal, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. These states have proposed to implement the initiative in 532 cities.

The Centre has brought certain changes to the guidelines of the scheme to make it easier for the economically weaker sections to take loan for constructing or expanding their houses. After the June 25 launch, states and banks had pointed out some problems in the guidelines which have been rectified. Apart from six minor changes, the ministry has notified a major change in the guidelines to ease the procedure. This is in the time period allowed for construction of the house and furnishing the utilisation certificate to banks. Earlier, the government had allowed only one year to complete a dwelling unit and furnishing the certificate. It has now been extended to three years. The ministry hopes to reach two crore beneficiaries through the scheme.