Noted housing finance expert Deepak Parekh will head an eight-member committee appointed on Tuesday by the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation to discuss the draft guidelines of government's ambitious Rajiv Awas Yojana which aims to make the country slum-free.
It will be National Housing Mission which will be launched soon
"The government has decided to introduce the Rajiv Awas Yojana for slum dwellers and the urban poor," Kumari Selja, minister of housing and urban poverty alleviation, said. The scheme would extend support to states that are willing to assign property rights to people living in slum areas. The government's efforts would be to create a slum-free India, which also envisages the states preparing their own time-bound plans to make the cities and towns slum free, she said.
A map showing the number of homeless persons per 1000 population in districts across India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sounded the poll bugle in Bihar, where assembly elections are due this year, calling for 'an NDA government, once again', which would protect the state from the 'evil intentions' of the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress combine.
It said 33,510 slums were estimated to be in the urban areas of the country of which 41 per cent were notified.
>Rohini Acharya, Lalu Yadav's daughter who donated her kidney to her father in December 2022, is on her introductory campaign trail in the constituency that has been represented by her father four times.
The government's vision of "housing for all by 2022" may turn out to be an uphill task with developers keeping off low-cost housing projects citing regulatory hurdles, high land cost and low returns making such projects "unaffordable".
The ruling Congress is seeking to retain power in Chhattisgarh by banking on the welfare schemes of the Bhupesh Baghel government, while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner it on the issues of alleged corruption, religious conversions and unfulfilled poll promises.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana envisages housing to 20 mn households by 2022.
Against predictions by most exit polls that the ruling Congress had an edge in the state, the BJP banked heavily on the charisma of the PM.
Tuesday's meeting at the PM's residence, attended by all the five secretaries in the finance ministry besides top officials of other economic ministries and NITI Aayog, cleared a five-year vision plan for the government to make India a $5-trillion economy by 2024.
Though launched in 1996, the slum replacement scheme has more or less bombed. Builders have not found the slum spaces attractive enough to build, harvest extra FSI for sale in open market thereby subsidising the rehabilitation, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Modi said bribery was not possible as the money was transferred directly into accounts of the beneficiaries.
The move is aimed at reflecting the diversity of India and highlighting the contribution of prominent personalities.
'The Opposition has no option but to make it an 'All versus One' fight to even think about winning.'
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