THE MINISTER OF HOUSING & URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION (AJAY MAKEN)
(a): As per the Technical Group on estimation of Urban Housing shortage of the
country for the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17) constituted by the Ministry of Housing
and Urban Poverty Alleviation the total housing shortage in 2012 is 18.78 million. Out of
the total housing shortage of 18.78 million, 10.55 million is in Economically Weaker Section
category, 7.41 million is in LIG category.
(b) & (c ) : The Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation is implementing following
schemes in order to bridge the housing shortage:
# Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was launched by Ministry of
Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in 2005 to
support provision of housing and basic services to urban poor in slums in 65 specified cities
under the Sub Mission Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and in other cities and towns
under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP). The duration of the
Mission was upto 31/03/2012 which has now been extended by 2 years upto the end of financial
year 2013-14 for completion of projects sanctioned upto March 2012 and implementation of 3
pro – poor reforms under BSUP and IHSDP components of JNNURM. State –wise details of funds
sanctioned, released and achievements made under BSUP and IHSDP components of JNNURM during
the 11th Plan is annexed as Annexure-I.
# The scheme of Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) was launched by Ministry of Housing & Urban
Poverty Alleviation with an aim to provide 50% Central assistance (90% for North Eastern and
Special Category States including the cost of land acquisition, if required) for creation of
affordable housing stock including rental housing and transit housing. A total of Rs. 99.98
crore were released during 2009-10 and 2010-11 to various states ( 195 cities). The list
of 195 cities is annexed as Annexure-II.
# The Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP) was launched by the
Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in 2008 with an aim to provide interest
subsidy on housing loans to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Groups
(LIG) for the purposes of construction/acquisition of houses and offer 5% subsidy in interest
payment for loans upto Rs. 1 lakh.
Under ISHUP 10,215 beneficiaries have been covered and Net Present Value (NPV) of subsidy of
Rs. 9.20 crores has been released during the 11th Five Year Plan period. State-wise details of
funds sanctioned and number of beneficiaries covered are annexed at Annexure III.
# The scheme of Affordable Housing in Partnership seeks assembly of land for construction
of affordable housing and provides Central Government assistance towards provision of internal
and external infrastructure connectivity. A total of 8 projects of Rajasthan have been
sanctioned under this scheme with a Central assistance of Rs. 7.2 crore for construction of
5,776 affordable dwelling units. The 1st installment of Rs. 2.2 crore has been released till
date.
(d): Some of the latest initiatives and proposed modifications in schemes and policies of
the Government of India to facilitate development of low cost housing are as below.
Latest initiatives :
# A Credit Risk Guarantee Fund (CRGF) Trust has been established with an initial corpus
of Rs. 1000 crores to guarantee the lending agencies for loans given to EWS / LIG persons upto
Rs. 5.00 lakhs without any third party guarantee or collateral security.
# In order to realign the eligibility criteria of household income at par with the current income and expenditure levels of the urban poor and to reach out to maximum number of urban poor, the household income ceiling of the EWS has been enhanced from Rs 5,000/- per month to Rs. 1,00,000/- per annum and from Rs. 5,001/- to Rs. 10,000/- per month to Rs. 2,00,000/- per annum for the LIG under all the schemes of this Ministry.
# The External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) has been allowed for low cost affordable
housing projects as a permissible end-use, under the approval route. ECB can be availed by
developers/builders for low cost affordable housing and slum rehabilitation projects. Housing
Finance Companies (HFCs) / National Housing Bank (NHB) can also avail ECB for financing
prospective owners of low cost affordable housing units.
Proposed modifications in schemes and policies :
# RAY is now proposed to be extended to all towns and cities as against 250 class I towns
stipulated earlier. Cities having population more than 5 lakhs, would be included automatically
under RAY. For smaller cities & towns, the choice of cities would be made by the States,
according to their aspirations, financial and resource arrangements in consultation with the
Central Government.
# It is proposed to define property rights under RAY as “legal document of entitlementâ€,
providing tenure security to the slum dwellers either in the form of long-term leasehold rights
for a specified period or freehold rights, as the case may be by the State Govt. or urban local
body or any other agency which exercises ownership over the land on which the slum is located.
# The reform of JNNURM I which stipulated to earmark at least 20-25% of developed land
in all housing projects (both public and private agencies) for EWS/LIG category has been
slightly modified to read as Reservation of 15% of residential Floor Area Ratio (FAR) / Floor
Space Index (FSI) or 35% of dwelling units for EWS/LIG categories whichever is higher, with a
system of cross-subsidisation in all future housing projects in accordance with guidelines to
be prescribed by MoHUPA.
# Revision of the existing scheme of ISHUP during 12th Plan is envisaged with an
objective of leveraging flow of institutional finance for housing EWS/LIG segments. Accordingly, it is proposed that loan limit be increased to Rs. 5.00 lakh for EWS households
and Rs. 8.00 lakhs for LIG households with interest subsidy provided at 5% on the loan upto
Rs. 5.00 lakh only to both categories, to promote housing for the EWS and LIG segments – on
annuity basis.
# It is however pointed out that all the proposed initiatives are at various stages of
conceptualization and / or approval of competent authorities. Therefore no firm commitment
with respect to final form in which the reforms would be accepted can be committed at this
juncture.
