‘Housing for all’ takes a hit

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 16

The NDA government’s flagship scheme of “housing for all” by 2022 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) seems to be heading towards “housing for none” in Chandigarh.

Reason: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has turned down the proposal of the UT Administration to provide 100 acres to the CHB at subsidised rates to build affordable houses for city applicants under the scheme.

About 12,000 applicants, who were finalised to get houses under the scheme, are likely to be hit by it.

Around two years ago, the board had started working on the project by carrying out a demand survey for the economically weaker section (EWS), lower income group (LIG) and middle income group (MIG) in the city.

UT Adviser Manoj Parida said, “We had written to the MHA in this regard. The ministry did not approve land at concessional rates. We then asked it to lower the target under the scheme. We will again write to the ministry.”

Officials said now MP Kirron Kher was likely to take up the matter with the ministry to get approval for land at concessional rates after which the UT would move further.

As per the existing law, the Administration cannot allot land below the market price, which is very high in the city. The Administration had requested the ministry to allow it to transfer land to the CHB at a nominal cost.

The land for the project is in Maloya, Dhanas and certain areas in southern sectors. Under the scheme, the Administration has set a target of providing housing to all, particularly to the urban poor, by 2022. The CHB has been made the nodal agency for the scheme.