Cabinet gives nod to housing-for-all policy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 3

To achieve the goal of houses for all and curtail the menace of mushrooming of unauthorised colonies, the government today approved the Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana, and revised the area norms of licensed colonies of medium and low-potential zones.

It also approved the Policy for Innovative Financing of the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) projects.

The decisions were taken by the Cabinet on the basis of recommendations made by the Cabinet sub-committee. The Cabinet met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here.

The Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana is a policy for providing affordable plotted housing for low and medium potential towns. It aims at development of ‘high density plotted colonies’ in low and medium potential towns of the state, wherein small plots are made available through a liberal policy framework.

As per the scheme, all such projects will be required to be necessarily completed within seven years from the date of grant of licence. A maximum permissible area of a plot will be 150 square metres with the maximum floor area ratio (FAR) of 2 and ground coverage of 65 per cent. The developer will transfer 10 per cent area of a licensed colony free of cost to the government for the provision of community facilities.

As a matter of security against any possible delinquencies in the completion of the project, the developer will be required to mortgage residential plots covering saleable area of not less than 15 per cent of the area under all residential plots in lieu of depositing the cost of internal development works (IDW) with municipality concerned, in favour of the director. The applicant will be allowed to sell the balance 50 per cent of the saleable area after the completion of the IDW.

The licence fees will be levied at a rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre for medium potential towns, and Rs 10,000 per acre for low potential towns.

The conversion charges and infrastructure development charges (IDC) will be waived. The bank guarantee to the tune of 25 per cent on account of IDW will be submitted or the applicant has to mortgage 15 per cent of salable area.

The external development charges (EDC) will be payable at the rate of Rs 10 lakh per acre for the medium potential zone, Rs.7.5 lakh per acre for all district headquarters falling within the low potential zone and Rs 5 lakh per acre for all other towns falling within the low potential zone.

The bank guarantee to the tune of 25 per cent on account of EDC will be submitted by the applicant.

Policy for innovative financing of MRTS projects

The policy envisages creating of a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) zone of 800 metres along the Right of Way (RoW) of a road on which an MRTS corridor is proposed.

The first 500 metres of the zone will be known as the intense TOD zone and the next 300 metres will be known as transition TOD zone. It will discourage the dependence on private vehicles and induce the use of public transport.

The policy envisages levying the charges such as scrutiny fee, IDC, licence fee, conversion charges and EDC on the pro-rata basis for increased FAR from 1.5-1.75 to 2.5-3.5. (see box: Charges for MRTS zones )

Relocation policy

The government has decided to implement a relocation policy for shifting of industries operating in residential areas in the interest of industrial units and public at large.

As per the policy, the government will facilitate shifting or relocation of units to the conforming areas. In case of shortfall of industrial zone space, additional zones will be identified and notified by the Department of Town and Country Planning Department and Urban and Local Bodies.

The policy in fine print

The Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana is a policy for providing affordable plotted housing for low and medium potential towns

• It aims at development of ‘high density plotted colonies’ in low and medium potential towns of the state, wherein small plots are made available through a liberal policy framework
• As per the scheme, all such projects will be required to be necessarily completed within seven years from the date of grant of licence
• A maximum permissible area of a plot will be 150 square metres with the maximum floor area ratio (FAR) of 2 and ground coverage of 65 per cent
• Conversion and infrastructure development charges will be waived External development charges will be payable at the rate of 
• Rs 10 lakh per acre medium potential zone
• Rs 7.5 lakh per acre for all district headquarters falling within the low potential zone 
• Rs 5 lakh per acre for all other towns falling within the low potential zone.

Other decisions

• The caste of Garhi Lohars declared as Tapriwas community
• Haryana to have the Sports and Physical Fitness Authority for the development of infrastructure and procurement of sports material and equipment
• Ace shooter Harpreet Singh appointed DSP for his outstanding performance in the Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi
• Exemption of entertainment duty on entry tickets and also exempted Value Added Tax (VAT) on the sale of all goods sold by casual traders at Surajkund mela
• Government jobs to a married daughter of martyr Ramesh Kumar of Silani Gate, Jhajjar, and a dependent of martyr Pardeep Singh Chauhan, constable in the Army. Kumar died in Operation Meghdoot on March 4,1989, while Chauhan of Rewari’s Rattanthal village was killed on February 23, 2002 
• Re-organisation of the tehsils in Gurgaon and Faridabad districts for updating land record; it was decided to re-organise existing Gurgaon tehsil and create four sub-tehsils; Faridabad and Ballabgarh tehsils will be bifurcated into two sub-tehsils each